It was the same and yet different, this year's Barcamp, our day of exchange between all colleagues and departments, full of topics that are close to our hearts, innovations that we feel are worth sharing and interesting for our communiversum and above all a lot network.
If there is one thing we have learned as communicode over the last few months, it is to work completely remotely from home. Virtual meetings and the corresponding tools have become second nature to us since Corona at the latest. And yet, after 1.5+ years, we long for shared experiences such as Christmas parties, summer festivals, trade fairs and our annual bar camp with a final socializing on the rooftop bar, because we miss each other and the interpersonal side of pure work comes up sometimes too short.
So it quickly became clear that there should not be another year without communiversity. We wanted to dare and a bar camp with almost 100 colleagues should take place - safe for everyone and with everyone. This initially meant that we had to break new ground. Our organizational team faced the challenge of giving the well-known a new framework and thus adapting it to the current situation: In the end, it was a day full of innovation and tradition.
For the Love of Tradition
As always, topics that are of concern, whether in the work environment or living together in the office, whether sports or technology, could be submitted in advance. The communiversity is about broadening your horizon, exchanging ideas and looking beyond your own (work) box. Of particular interest are topics that move and concern every individual in our industry, which are then voted on shortly before the event and which form the agenda. As every year, the topics covered were broad. There were contributions on GA4, on training at communicode, on mental health, partners, customers and this year also very prominently on the topic of sustainability.
As always, there was a keynote and a joint lunch break. However, the format was different. The same applies to the concluding get-together on the rooftop bar. We were able to end the day together with drinks together. So everything as usual? No. Because we weren't physically in the same place.
On to new shores
Unlike in previous years, this year's communiversity did not take place on the premises of the Unperfekthaus in Essen. We did not meet in person, but purely virtually.
The collection of topics and voting took place in the internal wiki. Three favorite recipes were also selected, the ingredients of which could be obtained in advance and cooked and eaten together in virtual kitchens via Gathertown & Microsoft Teams at lunchtime. So, everyone cooked at home, the meal then took place in a team room - separately and yet together.
Agenda, feedback wall, important links to the team rooms, the explanation of our virtual meeting house in Gathertown, all of this was not found on printed posters as usual, but on a Miro Board. The most exciting new tool, however, was Gathertown, a virtual meeting room that can be completely personalized and in which conditions similar to real life prevail. For example, if you sit or place your avatar next to another avatar, you can simply talk, if you move a few steps away, you can no longer hear him. So you can only listen to lectures, once you have entered the corresponding room, if you go out, you can't hear anything there either. Here there was a large hall, three conference rooms and the aforementioned rooftop bar, where people would sit together over a virtual drink in the evening.
Thanks to Microsoft Teams, Miro-Board & Gathertown! Our communiversity 2021 could take place and everyone in the communiversum was invited to participate. As a completely digitized event, our Barcamp was perfectly adapted to the current circumstances.
What remained was a (digital) get-together with all our favorite colleagues and that was - whether in person or purely digitally - the highlight for all of us and in any case a party!
Tradition meets innovation: Our video recap shows you impressions of the Barcamp 2021.
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