There’re 36 signals now, spread across 6 countries. Since we’re remote, we don’t get to see each other that often. We have meetups 2-3 times a year, but I don’t view them that way: they’re reunions. Our first of 2013 was last week. When you don’t get in-person face time with your coworkers every day, seeing each other makes it special, and it’s much more fun.
These gatherings are informal and mostly unstructured. We usually start Monday morning with a quick talk from Jason and David about the company. A round of lightning talks later in the day saw topics ranging from exploring new bits of code to why we should spend less time on things. Of course, I brought some GIFs to share.
On Tuesday, Stuart Halloway came in to bend our minds with functional programming and Datomic. Kevin Hale from Wufoo showed us how they’ve raised customer support to the next level on Thursday. Big thanks to both of these speakers for spending time and sharing their day with us.
I treat the meetups as more socialization than work. The company doesn’t just stop though. For my fellow Programmers, we’re on call in shifts throughout the day, Support is answering questions, Designers are sketching away, and our System Administrators are usually brainstorming evil plans.
We used the new Basecamp iPhone app to post photos throughout the week. I loved seeing an internal live-stream of what was happening in and out of the office.
The highlight of the meetups for me really is just seeing and being around my coworkers. There’s only so much you can get over an IM conversation. The time together gives us a chance to goof off too.
I’m always a bit exhausted after a week in Chicago and happy to return home. Our next meetup is in the summer, and I’m planning on exploring the city more thanks to the warmer weather. Until next time!
Thanks to Natalie, Will, John, and Joan for the great photos.
Nick wrote this on Mar 05 There are 18 comments.
Jamie 05 Mar 13
Wait a second. The highlight wasn’t having beers at Hopleaf with your beard brothers?
Don Schenck 05 Mar 13
I really hate you guys.
:)
Shawn 05 Mar 13
It’s interesting to get this sort of insight into operations. Do keep it up!
As an aside, you called yourselves 36 instead of 37 signals, probably owing to exhaustion from all the togetherness :-)
Ger 05 Mar 13
I want a blackboard in my office! Reminds me of school :D
Nick 05 Mar 13
@Jamie, next time I’ll have to have a beard!
@Shawn, that’s a reference to our current employee count. Just happens to be close to 37.
Alexis 05 Mar 13
King of Tokyo !
GeeIWonder 05 Mar 13
The 37th signal is the team?
Anonymous Coward 05 Mar 13
So you bash Yahoos! policy on remote working, yet you find it important make the huge expense of flying in your entire company multiple times a year to be face-to-face.
Interesting.
Joe 05 Mar 13
Very interesting and cool to see. How do you structure the “lightning talks”?
Jason Fried 05 Mar 13
Joe, there’s not much structure. We set up a Basecamp to-do list and people can add their name to the list if they want to give a talk. The talks are about 10 minutes long. If you aren’t on the list you can give one too, but only after everyone else on the list has given theirs.
Joe 05 Mar 13
Hi Jason – so the goal is information sharing and making connections / affinity groups for topics of interest?
Bryan 05 Mar 13
I know that you used to do your company get together somewhere else (other than the Chicago “headquarters”). I know that you have grown since those days and now have your own office. Have you given any thought of doing one company get together somewhere else every so often?
I always thought the way you used to all go somewhere else was a great idea. Just curious if you had thought about doing that again and if so, what you like and don’t like about it.
Jason Fried 05 Mar 13
Joe, the goal is to set aside time for people to share, teach, demonstrate, or whatever they want.
Will Jessop 05 Mar 13
I uploaded my photos of the meetup.
Joe 06 Mar 13
Jason, thanks! As with many other 37signals ideas, I’ll be applying this!
Sunil 06 Mar 13
You need Pittsburgh in that first photo.
James C 06 Mar 13
@AC – Not that interesting. Nothing about remote working is inconsistent with meetups at the office, just like going to a trade seminar from an office.
Anonymous Coward 06 Mar 13
Muy bien!!!
This discussion is closed.