The team recently descended on Mike’s golf club for a multi-purpose get-together. Our mission? To strengthen team bonds, say goodbye to David, review our documentation and last – but not least – learn how to save lives! With only two days to achieve everything, it was all systems go.

The night before

As befits a mapping company, our team is geographically diverse. To avoid our furthest flung members nodding off during the meet-up, many of them chose to arrive the night before. David got in a spot of early practice for his retirement by bagging a table in a nearby pub to watch the football. He was joined by several colleagues. 

In the meantime, Darren, having embarked on an epic three-connection journey from North Wales, was 20 minutes late before crossing the border. His laments on the internal chat were met with David’s trademark humour:

Despite David’s terrible joke, apparently a good time was had by all. Except Darren.

A busy morning

As more Astuners converged on Leatherhead, those who had stayed over took a gentle walk in the sunshine to the golf club. There, over a cup of tee (sorry, we couldn’t resist), they awaited their less chilled out comrades who arrived bearing the battle scars of public transport.

Once the team was safely gathered in and our new members greeted, it was time for the real work to begin.

The project of the day

With many of the team in the same room for once, we had the ideal opportunity to work on a cross-functional project to improve the customer experience. Darren, having fairly recently been part of the onboarding team at Conwy County Borough Council, had previously shared constructive feedback about our iShare Help Pages from a new customer’s perspective. With his words fresh in our minds, we split into teams to review the pages, hosted in our corporate wiki, to determine where improvements could be made. 

Topics discussed included:

• How to help customers understand what’s available in iShare Help
  • Home page improvements
  • New guidance
• How to make it easier for them to find content relevant for their version of iShare
  • Improved labelling conventions
• How to ensure relevance
  • Accountability review
  • Enhanced archiving processes

We’re sure that users will appreciate their efforts!

A meal at the golf club rounded the day off for those who prefer an early night. Others ventured into Leatherhead for a few drinks although it was all very civilised due to the early start the following morning.

Stayin’ Alive with Astun

Well-rested, many of the team opted to stop by our office in Epsom on Friday morning for a CPR tutorial, delivered by Charlie from the Justin Edinburgh 3 Foundation (JE3). JE3 is dedicated to empowering individuals and organisations to act quickly and knowledgeably when witnessing cardiac arrest by increasing access to life saving defibrillators and delivering CPR training.

Mike says, “Having had the training myself, and heard how low survival rates are – only one in 10 people experiencing a cardiac arrest out-of-hospital will survive – I was determined to give the team the opportunity to learn to save lives. 

“It’s incredibly reassuring to know that you can act confidently in an emergency. Being able to use a defibrillator is a skill we should all have now there are an estimated 100,000 defibrillators in the UK.” 

Saying goodbye to David

Prior to the meet-up, the team had conducted a remote whip-round for David’s leaving presents. Those suitable for public consumption included his favoured whisky (Laphroig), a crystal glass and, of course, a map showing the best golf courses in the UK. We’re sure that David is already planning to tackle some of them over the next few years. 

What the team thought

As in previous years, our get-together was a productive use of time as well as a good opportunity to catch up. We always aim to make the event as enjoyable for newer members of the team as it is for our old-timers. Here’s what Darren had to say, “With many Astuners working from home, this was a great opportunity to meet colleagues face-to-face. Whilst online meetings are great, you can’t beat meeting someone, shaking their hand and having a conversation.” 

Monireh, another recent addition to the team, adds, “The face-to-face meeting with the team in Leatherhead was brilliant. I had a chance to hear David’s jokes, which was great but I’m not sure why Tom* wasn’t happy with this situation 🙂 And because of David’s retirement, it’s a bit sad we won’t have those moments in the same way again.”

*Tom may have a reputation for audibly groaning or telling David off when he made a joke.