Late last year I was sitting at the barber shop, getting a haircut. The barber felt obliged to ask me what I do for a living. I tried to explain to him, in a non-technical way, how I “designed websites”, and managed the business with my 2 business partners in Norway and Cape Town… who I’d only met face-to-face a handful of times.
Of course the conversation went dead then as he was obviously a little confused by this internet thing I did. I quietly kept thinking about our rather unique business, and how completely mobile we actually are. Why don’t we really take advantage of the perks of mobile officing?
It was cold and wet outside, typical London weather. I thought where would I ideally be right there and then? Surprisingly I thought I’d like to be somewhere even colder… The Alps. Skiing.
I went back home and wrote a quick email to Magnus and Adii saying something along the lines of “let’s take advantage of our internet-based business and take it somewhere completely different for a week or two. Let’s try and take the core team with us and have a good team build, brainstorm over our plans for the rest of the year, and watch each other wipe out on icy slopes. All the while documenting the journey for our users, and site visitors, to find out about the other side of our team.”
Naturally they didn’t take much persuading.
4 and a bit months later, after much research, we’ve booked a trip for the 6 of us to the Saalbach resort in the Austrian Alps. We leave tomorrow night.
Yup, it’s short notice. But we are internet based business. We’ll still be contactable over all the channels we usually are. We’ll be answering email, designing themes, supporting themes and working on marketing strategies. All the while having some fun.
We’ve built a site dedicated to the adventure, and it’s built on our latest micro-blogging Tumblog themes. Meaning you can expect lots of bite-sized posts, photos and videos, plus some exciting new Tumblog functionality that we’ll be announced during the week away.
Time to pack.
About
Such a cool idea guys, really looking forward to reading the updates as you go!
Massive jealousy brewing in the online world, guys… Good for you and well done! Have a fantastic time.
Nice guys. Hope you have a great trip. Looking forward to seeing the pics.
Just back some snowboarding 🙁
I was in Austria last year, great spot, Cheap and Great food!! Maybe you should use your Postcard theme and travel around the globe while working also 😉
We thought about that, but seeing we in one location for the week the Google Maps integration would be a bit repetitive.
We sure will if we plan more trips later down the line.
Remember to have plenty of jagermeister before hitting the slope! Cushions the fall and relaxes your stance 😉
Thanks for the tip Dave. We’ve taken note 🙂
They don’t call me Magmeister for nothing 😉
Sounds familiar to the retreats that Automattic takes. Nothing beats face to face work and communication to get things done. Have fun guys.
Wow, cool.
I’ve just returned home from a snowy week too. I was at approx 8000ft and it was an awesome adventure. Hope you have an awesome mobile business adventure too ! 😉
I was in Saalbach a couple of years ago. Lovely place to go skiing/boarding. Enjoy yourselves.
really trying to dislocate that shoulder again hey Mr Forrie, take it easy! We should consider a joint venture with the co. I work for ‘AtPlay’ as it’s aptly named for your ‘work experience’, maybe next time. Good luck bud, chat soon…
Yeah expect some photo posts from the medic centre.
Sounds like a lot of fun. Have a great time. Oh, and by the way, any chance your tweaked version of Cinch will make it into an update of the theme? I’m really interested in the centered design with sidebar on the right.
We’ll definitely contemplate releasing something similar after the trip. 🙂
That would be excellent! I look forward to checking it out for my personal blog when available. Enjoy the slopes!
Hey, Mark!
Now that you guys are back from the ski trip, have you given any further thought to releasing a modified version of Cinch along the lines of the centered version with right sidebar you used on the Woo Slopes site? Maybe as a chid theme? Thanks!
This is a brilliant idea, Mark. One of the things I like about remote working, is that it really doesn’t matter where you are or what you’re doing for the rest of the time, business can carry on as usual!
Looking forward to following the adventures 😀
have fun and come back in one piece… 🙂
AND its a tax perk!!! Not stoopid you guys… Enjoy!
How do I become part of your core team? Yeah I was also wondering about your popped shoulder.
Have fun!!
Gotta love that life.
Do what you gotta do where you gotta do it.
it is great man
enjoy Saalbach guys – it’s a great spot! I worked from there for a week last year too – ahh the benefits of running a footloose and fancy internet business 🙂