The entire company gathers in person twice a year. We meet-up in a different city every time. In 2022, we traveled to Miami and Amsterdam. Most of the planning is taken care of for you; you just need to book your flights. Lodging, meeting space, agenda, and social outings will be planned and communicated well in advance.
In general, our meet-ups are largely unstructured. Every morning, we gather for breakfast at 8am. There are some scheduled talks, like the welcome session on Monday morning, lightning talks, and peer appreciation session. Occasionally, we bring in outside speakers or trainers. Other than that, the meet-up is intentionally loose. Teams huddle in a breakout room, groups go out for coffee or to explore the city, or managers meet 1:1s with employees. Connection and fellowship is always the #1 goal of any meet-up, which we accomplish in different ways throughout the week.
Meet-ups are 1 week long. Most people arrive Sunday, we meet Monday through Thursday, and then we travel home on Friday. Everyone should come to every meet-up, but skipping one here and there is okay if you have an engagement you can’t cancel.
It’s important to note that meet-ups can be overwhelming when we’re so used to working on our own and virtually. But meet-ups are also rewarding and energizing, and you’ll probably find yourself looking forward to the next one within weeks of returning home.
Once a year, you can get together with a small group of your coworkers on a mini meet-up at a destination of your choosing. Mini meet-ups should have a work focus. They’re not meant to be social trips, and you’re not doing just your day-to-day work in the same room as your coworkers. You should be collaborating on something meaningful. It certainly doesn’t have to be big and you don’t have to produce something by the end of the meet-up. Pick something you’d love to have a week to discuss in person and have fun with it.
Keep in mind: your mini meet-up team does not have to be your formal team like Ops, Support, Mobile, etc. Colleagues who are working cross-team who have a project to get together on can meet-up too. Limit yourself to 1 mini meet-up per year though, whether that’s with your dedicated team or with an offshoot team.
Budget guidelines for mini meet-ups can be found in Basecamp.
Once every month or two, everyone in the company is given the opportunity to do a Customer Support shift. We call it Everyone on Support (EOS). Talking directly to customers all day helps us realize what’s wrong and what’s right with our products. For the first few times you do EOS, you’ll have a Support buddy to help you write clear and correct answers to customer questions through Help Scout, our support response tool, and then you’re on your own!