It is virtually impossible to immerse yourself in the vastness of the communicode universe without being carried away sooner or later by the synergies of diverse personalities, their diversity of ideas and knowledge and their passion.
When I was stranded in this cauldron full of digital thinkers almost exactly 8 years ago, I was able to experience first-hand what it means to actually be able to use the freedom to think ahead and develop together at all levels. I noticed pretty quickly that a lot of know-how was floating around without a harbour, but was never grabbed by the forelock. Okay, of course everyone somehow knew that, but Thomas Kopatz, our Director of Software Development, was desperately looking for a solution to bring all the wonderful thoughts together, channel them, project them and capture them at the end of the day. He wanted to be able to continue working on it in the long term.
Even back then, I had a small passion for BarCamps, a kind of unconference whose essential task was to allow (media) people to explain, discuss and try things out with one another in an uncomplicated and inspiring way, no matter what they mostly did related to a main topic, wanted to move. No topic is out of place there and if it were, it would be thrown out of the so-called "session plan" one way or another via voting.
(By the way, you can read here what exactly a barcamp is.)
Carrying the idea to the right places as soft as silk, communicode decided without further ado to convert this form of intellectual exchange into an internal company event and let it blossom into life 6 years ago as the "communiversity camp".
In the spring of each year, the camp takes place in the Unperfekthaus Essen. For a (working) day we outsource ourselves holistically as the communicoder that we are, in order to devote ourselves to the sessions of our colleagues every hour. That's right, a session lasts one hour at most, three slots usually run in parallel, unless someone was so convincing with their topic that the whole of communicode actually wanted to be part of it.
The fact that such content exists and that we always have too little time to discuss, so to speak, fueled our CEO, Stefan Belmann, to push the whole thing a little further: This year there will be the opportunity to claim double slots to discuss topics that are longer could take time, not having to rule them out from the outset. In addition to discussions and smaller lectures, we would also like to give an opportunity for in-house workshops - from development and project management to design and team building. customer issues and so on.
As you can see, there is material and we have plans.
By no means does it just have something to do with fun and selective exchange, no, we have taken a lot from our events for years: For example, the topic of "agility" was carried into the company from a session a few years ago and accompanied us still today in the most diverse nooks and crannies of our corporate culture.
We also couldn't resist organizing a smaller camp once a month in-house: a half-day OpenSpace. Because nothing would stand in our way more than not working regularly on the things that concern us.
What motivates me in particular to organize and promote this event over and over again is that it offers a constant opportunity for the exchange of knowledge, ideas and communication on an equal footing. From the trainee to the management, everyone is cordially invited, asked and challenged.
It is exciting to be able to offer a platform on which special synergies can find and develop that otherwise might not have existed.
In this sense! Be nice to each other.
The Ellen