Wohooo! It’s 2020 and time for our first IRL of the year Decade. We decided on Bangkok (known as Krung Thep in Thai) as the IRL location since it has relaxed visa norms and for its undisputed reputation as a fun city.
By late Sunday evening and after the hustle-and-bustle for the few Niteans, the entire team reached the IRL location all set for the week-long fun (oh! and work too).
We started the IRL by writing down Workgroups (amusingly called WAR-groups) on our tasks board. Workgroups are usually decided a sprint or two before the event and we execute them on the IRL where we divide into groups for discussion. This time, we had around 40ish workgroups that were covered during the week.
After deciding with the Workgroups, Dejan and Nejc explained the State the Niteo which is a summary of how 2019 was as a year for the company, what did we achieve/lose, what went right/wrong, and so much more. This is extremely helpful to get the panoramic view of the company operations and it serves as a metric when we define our yearly goals.
Fast forward two days of work, and here we are at a German Brewery, on a Wednesday evening with a sole purpose – to have fun (and get drunk too).
I started counting the number of beer towers that were coming to the table but then they were just too many to keep a count (and I lost track as well after a few mugs).
Words won’t justify the fun evening Wednesday was and saying it was “amazing” would be an understatement. That said, we have set a new benchmark for our Wednesday IRL parties.
Came Thursday and we carried on with the workgroups. It takes a lot of dedication to be back at work while still hungover.
One thing which kept us going strong throughout the IRL week was the Yoga sessions. Every day, the whole team practised Yoga before heading for Lunch. Credit goes to Nejc for proposing and organizing the sessions for the team. We started with Yoga at the IRL in Marrakech and there is no looking back since then.
We wrapped up early for the evening as it was time for our Python meetup and after-party (yes, again :p).
Post meetup, it was time again for a few rounds of beer and good food. With beer inside our belly from the last night, most of us still went on with it.
And then it was Friday, the last day of the IRL and it felt like it came just too early. It was difficult to believe that the week is about to end and it looked like we’ve just started. We gathered for a group photo and finished off the remaining work before everyone starts to pack for their way back home.
Before I sign off, here are a few interesting photos from the IRL and not showing them here would be a crime. Feel free to caption them.
All in all, it was an amazing IRL and we look forward to the next one 🙂