As many of you know, I work at Automattic which is a fully distributed company. There are 633 of us up to date working from our homes, cafes, co-working spaces, libraries, you name it, in 58 countries around the world. This doesn’t mean, however, that we don’t ever meet each other, it is actually quite the opposite. The world is our office and we get to travel a lot. We tend to meet several times per year in different countries for a week to work together, bond as a team and have some fun. Check out WooCommerce meetup in Berlin and my team meetup in Lisbon posts.
Most of the meetups during the year usually happen in smaller teams of 5-15 people except for one in September. This is when all 600+ of us fly to one place from around the world to spend a week together working on projects, learning from each other and catching up on all things Automattic. The event is known as a Grand Meetup (GM). This year we flew to a beautiful Whistler located in British Columbia, Canada. In this post, I share some insights on how the week goes and of course some pics.
On the day of the arrival, we usually have a Welcome Dinner at night where we meet and greet each other and get ready for a week ahead.
Waking up to this view the next day was a bliss and it felt good!
This year’s first day was a Team Day which means we would spend a day in our smaller teams. It was up to us what we wanted to do so my team Space Noodle (check out what it means here) decided to go for a hike around the village. We talked about our goals and plans for the next quarter, caught up with each other’s lives and just had a great time.
We got really lucky with the weather and had a really nice walk wandering around the area. We ended up in the cafe, later on, to write a recap and finalize the day.
During the next 4 days, each of us had to pick what they wanted to do during GM. The choices are usually either doing a regular job, work on a project or take a class. I decided to take a class – it was Calypso Basics where I learned how Calypso works.
Calypso is the new WordPress.com front-end – a beautiful redesign of the WordPress dashboard using a single-page web application, powered by the WordPress.com REST API. Calypso is built for reading, writing, and managing all of your WordPress sites in one place.
At the end of the class later that week, I submitted my first 2 Calypso PRs (# & #) and felt pretty good about it.
On Friday, we got together in the village for a company photo. Here we are!
Saturday was our activity day and together with other Automatticians, we decided to take a Peak-2-Peak Gondola. It was a perfect day to enjoy the beautiful Whistler views.
As we got to the top of the mountain, we decided to go for a hike there.
Back to the hotel to meet this couple 🙂
And more bears…
Sunday was our last day in Whistler and I got a chance to hang out with more Automatticians in the morning.
Finally, the week was ending with a Closing Party. This year’s theme was “Prom: Through the Decades” so everyone dressed up in the funky clothing. We had a blast!
Automattic Band!
More photoboothing 🙂
Grand Meetup 2017 was amazing! Thanks to everyone for making it memorable. Until next year folks 🙂
P.S. Back home in NYC with Canadian goodies.
NYC. Tech. Traveling. Art 
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