Behind the scenes at StripeCamp

StripeCamp is our internal company conference. It's an opportunity for our whole team to come together, to celebrate the past year's achievements and look ahead to the new challenges we face. This year’s StripeCamp was held at Silverstream Retreat in the Mighty Hutt Valley. A place of mystery and wonder to those of us who had never ventured further than Karori, and even more so to Dan who had travelled all the way from London especially for this event. After a long wait for our Auckland buddies to arrive (RIP Grizz the Airport security dog), we boarded the bus to make our way to Silverstream.

Since the last StripeCamp 2 years ago, we’ve been through a few changes, with new SilverStripers and teams joining. We had a lot of exciting topics to cover off in not much time so after some quick cups of (questionable) coffee we cracked into it.

Day one was focused on our Vision, Values and 5 year goals.  Particularly around;

• Our revenue goals
• Changes to teams, specifically around bringing in more focus for the Common Web Platform
• Channel Excellence -  helping third-party SilverStripe teams and partners to be successful
• What our teams have accomplished thus far in terms of Digital Transformation and Customer Experience

SilverStripe director Sacha Judd (no relation to Sacha Judd, staff member) also gave a talk on diversity and inclusion based around boyband One Direction. This gave us some great food for thought as our culture is always evolving. You can check out the fantastic talk she also gave at Webstock on her blog. 

After a full-day packed with presentations, some of us spent the late afternoon playing Lasersport or soaking up the last of the summer sun out on the deck, waiting in anticipation for the Stripey Awards (shout out to Ingo who won the Ultimate SilverStriper award second year running). 

Developer Tobie proves Lasersport is also a fun spectator sport

Day Two had a focus on People and Culture. This included an Ask Me Anything session with the management team (an example of how we like to demonstrate one of our values Honesty over Comfort) where staff had the chance to ask any question of management in an open forum.

The Management team AMA

The SilverStripe leadership team answering any and all questions from the team

Following that I presented the results from the Workplace Survey which had been undertaken by staff in the previous weeks. This gave us some valuable insight into how we can continually improve in making SilverStripe a great place to work.

The last activity for StripeCamp was run by our Development Managers around what it takes to be an Employer of Choice. Everyone had the chance to have their input on this topic and it was particularly interesting for me to know what it would take to have staff recommend SilverStripe as an Employer of Choice.

Social time at StripeCamp

I find holding StripeCamp extremely valuable in the sense that the whole company can come together meet some new faces and get on the same page as to where we’re heading over the next year and beyond.  Holding this outside of our usual environment also helps with focus and getting to know your colleagues outside of the workplace. Today Upper Hutt, tomorrow….who knows?  

Founder Sigurd Magnusson took this great photo of the sky over StripeCamp