June is one of our favorite months at HelloInfo, and that’s because we have made it our tradition to hold an annual company onsite this time every year! The purpose of the onsite meeting is to connect as a team, bridge the virtual gap (we are a 100% remote company), grow our skill set, review our company’s strategic direction, and have some fun together. This year we held our company onsite in beautiful Regina, Saskatchewan.
Why Regina?
Why not Regina?! As a proudly Canadian company, we are committed to providing opportunities to explore new parts of the country. As well, Regina is HelloInfo Senior Consultant, Kate McGillivray’s home base and we thought we would take the opportunity to have her show us around the city.
Regina is a beautiful city. The weather was excellent for our visit, and we found the city welcoming, with friendly people and an easy to navigate layout.
While the main thrust of the onsite was to connect in person and bridge the virtual divide, we also took the opportunity to level up our skills and align on our strategic direction.
What did we accomplish?
- A key aspect of the event was to align on our strategy, so we reviewed our strategic goals for FY2023, discussed where we landed against those goals, and set goals for FY2024.
- We had an incredibly engaging presentation from one of our clients. This session gave us an opportunity to better understand how we support their organization, and we very much appreciate their willingness to contribute to our team! From this presentation we now better understand:
- How they use research in their organization
- When, and why they leverage third-party agencies for research
- What happens on their side of a research engagement, including their own internal needs analysis discussions, how they manage their internal stakeholders, and the ways in which they socialize the research
- How HelloInfo fits into their overall research toolbox
- Differentiators they feel HelloInfo offers, and
- Improvement areas for our team
- We engaged in our annual “Research Scavenger Hunt,” back by popular demand. Every HelloInfo employee crafted a research question, and we had 45 minutes to independently answer them all. It is a fun way to flex our research muscles, and most important is the lively discussion afterwards, where we share ideas and best practices for research approaches.
- We took part in a creative sprint, to brainstorm ideas for future marketing materials.
- Lastly, we relaunched the HelloInfo Style Guide to ensure our clients are getting a consistent look and feel for the deliverables we produce. A heated discussion took place about periods at the end of bullets, and we concluded that hard and fast rules aren’t always the best approach.
It wasn’t all work though!
We took the time to explore Regina, eat some delicious food, and take part in some group activities:
- As part of our commitment to continuing education and to take action on recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation commission, we had a presentation on the lives of native communities in Canada’s North. Additionally we visited the First Nations Gallery at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, which did an excellent job of providing insight into the history of the native people of Saskatchewan.
- We ate and drank at some wonderful restaurants and bars – thank you Kate for the recommendations! If you’re ever in Regina we highly recommend Homestead.
- We got puzzled (and absolutely terrified!) by an Escape Room at Escape Manor, managing to escape at the last second. We’re not sure if we’ll ever get Nicolle’s bloodcurdling screams out of our ears.
HelloInfo is committed to ensuring we are taking time to come together as a group to align, take a breather, and connect with each other. Thank you to all our clients and partners that make our existence possible. We love what we do, and we feel it is truly a privilege to be on this journey.
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!
