The HelloInfo team continued our annual tradition of holding a company onsite to kick off the summer. This June we embarked on a trip to the maritime city of Halifax, Nova Scotia! We discussed our strategy for the next few years, launched a new employee peer review process, and shared learnings from books that we each read about various aspects of DEI. We also had fun together completing our second escape room, our third online Research Scavenger Hunt, and new for this year – a city sites scavenger hunt in downtown Halifax!
Our accomplishments
A key objective of getting together annually for a few days is aligning on our strategy. We reviewed last year’s goals/accomplishments and set new goals for this year. This year Nicolle and Tanya presented HelloInfo’s strategic vision for the next five years. As the team begins to ruminate and provide feedback on ideas put forth about the direction of our operations, product offerings, marketing, and people development, we will have more to share with you in the coming months.
Every year we have one of our clients join us for a Q&A session about how they leverage us to support their organization. We appreciate their willingness to take part in this year’s event and now have a better understanding of:
- How research ideas are born at their organization and how HelloInfo helps take those ideas to create a project and deliver actionable insights.
- How our industry-agnosticism can be perceived by our clients and how it helps bring an advantage for insights.
- Their point of view on the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the research process.
DEI book discussions
As part of HelloInfo’s DEI (diversity, ethics and inclusion) initiatives, every member of our team chose to read, or listen to, a book that offers new perspectives on DEI and presented what we learned. Books chosen by our team ranged from the autobiography of Jackie Robinson to the diary of Anne Frank (see the end of this blog for the full list of books).
Our book presentations and discussions only touched the tip of the iceberg, in terms of bringing awareness to marginalized peoples’ life experiences. However, they did bring up some tough food for thought on how literature can bring awareness and also further spotlight problematic narratives. While it may have been difficult to talk about these narratives as we all come from different backgrounds, it was encouraging that we did have the discussions that help us grow as a team and individually.
Fun in Halifax
For the second year in a row our team successfully fled from an escape room – this time with nearly 15 minutes to spare! Our escape from a “medieval prison” at Trapped Halifax speaks volumes about our ability to work together under a time crunch, which is something we frequently do remotely, but less so in person. Thankfully this year’s escape had fewer terrifying shrieks than last year’s iteration.
Back again by popular demand, our annual Research Scavenger Hunt took us across the internet looking into baseball players, 80s music, and more. It was fun sharing the different search methods we took to find the answers (including debating about using Copilot for searches) as well as guessing which of our team members submitted which questions.
HelloInfo’s number one scavenger hunt enthusiast, Bernie, sent us crisscrossing Halifax’s downtown and waterfront. Clues sent us to interesting Halifax sites including the Tidal Beacon art installation and Halifax Central Library. Although no whales were spotted (sorry Violeta), we did find adorable ducks and the oak tree planted by King George VI in the Halifax Public Gardens.
When it comes to food and drink, we were not short of amazing bar and restaurant options. If you find yourself in Halifax, we highly recommend Fawn for food and drinks. For those imbibing, the spicy margarita received high praise from several folks on the team. Those of us going zero-proof were happy with the sophisticated options available.
List of books read by HelloInfo team members as part of 2024’s DEI initiatives:
- American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
- The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
- Five Little Indians by Michelle Good
- Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
- I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography of Jackie Robinson by Alfred Duckett and Jackie Robinson
- Uniquely Human: A Different Way of Seeing Autism by Barry M. Prizant and Tom Fields-Meyer
- Wishtree by Katherine Applegate
HelloInfo is committed to growing together as a team, connecting with each other, and having fun. Thank you to our clients, partners, and team for making HelloInfo incredible!
We are always looking for high quality team members to join us in our journey. Do you feel that you’d be a good fit? Reach out and schedule a call with us!
