What was the most surprising thing about the guys’ reactions?
I was pleasantly surprised how comfortable our developers felt at client meetings. They speak English with our clients when they are in Prague as well, but I still admired everybody for not being nervous when they were face-to-face with our clients. #respect
Who enjoyed the trip most?
One of our older developers (a dad of a beautiful 2-year-old girl) signed up for nearly all the optional events offered and bought so much stuff like it was Christmas already.
What was the biggest success of Fall Camp?
The main purpose of our US fall camp was to get our developers to feel the Silicon Valley vibe and experience the different culture and legacy. When we went to see the executive chairman of Google live and visited the garage where Steve Jobs made his first computers, I believe our guys got to know what Silicon Valley is all about.
Was there anyone who was so happy that he wanted to stay? Did they all look sad when they left to come home?
We wanted to fit as many activities in in a short period of time, which resulted in a rather overwhelming experience for our guys. Too much joy is great but tiring, so I think, even though everyone enjoyed the heck out of it, they were really happy to go home.
While we were organizing the fall camp, we also moved to a new office at Slovansky dum in Prague, so everybody was really excited to go back and work out of the new office.
What was the client’s reaction to meeting the guys? Do they still like us?
Most of our developers met with the clients they work with, and the mutual feedback was very positive. All our clients said it was nice to put a face to a name. One company organized drinks with me and the developer they worked with, so there was also a lot of informal get-togethers ;)
Was the camp a good idea? What do you think? Are you looking forward to repeating it?
It was the first time we organized such a camp, and we learned a lot from it. We are soon going to announce something even cooler than an occasional camp, but I can’t be more specific until we finalize all the arrangements.
And what about repeating the camp?
This has something to do with our big announcement for next year. Stay tuned!
The camp took a lot of time and effort. The guys told me they really appreciate it. Was it relaxing for you, or it was it exhausting?
As it was the first time in the US for most of the guys, we wanted them to get the most out of it. Also, since Lubo (Co-founder and COO) and I are located in the US for most of the year, we don’t have much time to spend with our amazing developers, so we really wanted to make the most out of the time. The camp wasn’t just about the Silicon Valley culture and work. We also organized a road trip: San Francisco - Yosemite (not the OS X version) - Death Valley - Las Vegas - Los Angeles - Santa Cruz - and back to San Francisco. We had a lot of fun. One of our developers is a passionate climber, and he was super excited about seeing El Capitan in Yosemite which is the most famous vertical climbing wall in the world. Others were a bit more excited about a real Las Vegas-style pool party with a lot of young people partying during the day and a perfect Sunday afternoon in the Hard Rock Hotel pool. Dozens of cans of Coronas were consumed.
