Celebrating in SoCal with the Automotus team
Celebrating in SoCal with the Automotus team
Riley Leight · 2/15/2023
Automotus has built first-of-its-kind automated curb management solutions to help reduce emissions, congestion, and safety hazards in communities across the U.S. and Canada. They recently hosted a BoomPop Offsite to bring their team together for a well-deserved year end celebration full of fun and connection.
We spoke with Automotus’ Chief of Staff, Kelly Schmandt Ferguson, to learn more about the event and how it impacted the team.
Navigating events and engagement in a hybrid workplace
Automotus is powered by a small, innovative team. That means every individual’s contribution has a major impact, and being effectively connected to one another is crucial. “It's really important, particularly when you're a growing company like we are, to have a really strong team,” Schmandt Ferguson said. “It’s not just about having the skills you need to accomplish your goals, but also about the team enjoying being around each other, and that we all align on our mission.”
Building a strong team takes recognizing what kind of environment and experiences will help your people succeed. Although Automotus’ culture is remote-first, their leaders have seen firsthand how crucial in-person connection is for building bonds and driving their business forward. “We recently got an office because we found that the team actually enjoys being around each other and wants to collaborate in person,” Schmandt Ferguson said. “That’s also why these events, like the year end gathering, are so important to us.”
Year end gatherings are a company tradition at Automotus, meant to give the team a moment away from work to celebrate their accomplishments, get refreshed, and build excitement for what’s next. “We don't have that much time all together physically in one place, but we’ve noticed that when we do gather, the team always enjoys it. Everybody feels really positive and excited afterwards.”
Considering how important these events are to Automotus’ culture, it’s important for every aspect to come together and create a truly special experience. That kind of planning is time-consuming—many 2 day offsites take more than 50 hours of planning—and that’s why the team turned to BoomPop for help.
Crafting a custom experience
Schmandt Ferguson’s role as Chief of Staff covers a broad and evolving set of responsibilities, which in the past included planning events like the year end celebration. In 2022, however, she and the team knew their focus needed to be elsewhere. “It takes a lot of time. There's a lot of logistics and coordination with event planning, and there are other things that are a higher priority,” she explained. “It was a matter of evaluating where we put our resources, and it made a lot of sense to have folks who do this on the regular help us plan something really fun and memorable.”
The goals for the event were simple: give the team an opportunity to have fun, relax, bond, and just be together. The event took place in and around Santa Monica, making it a local and easily accessible event for most of the team. And since Automotus is an active group, the sunny SoCal setting helped provide plenty of outdoor activities they’d enjoy.
“I think if you ask almost anybody in the team who was there, volleyball was the highlight,” Schmandt Ferguson said. “There were some people who had played volleyball regularly, others who had never played before in their lives, but everybody worked together really well. And then it got competitive pretty quickly, which made it really fun.” Other activities included a scenic vineyard tour and wine tasting in Malibu, private dinners and a bike tour in Santa Monica, plus a session where the team sat down to discuss and retool their values as an organization.
Throughout the planning process, Schmandt Ferguson and Automotus CEO Jordan Justus were able to work with a BoomPop Event Designer to share ideas, get recommendations, and craft a pace for their event that made it successful. “I thought it seemed like a lot of time in between activities, but it wasn't—it was just right. You never felt like, oh shoot, we have to get to the next thing. The event had all of the things we wanted to accomplish, but none of the panic.”
“Everybody had a really fun time,” she said. “They loved spending time with the team, they liked the activities a lot—it was all positive feedback.”
How in-person experiences impact team culture
In Automotus' case, the unique nature of their product—which has a tangible effect on traffic, congestion, and industry across locations—gives them an opportunity to align events with their company’s mission. “We would really like to continue having these activities in cities that we're installed in,” Schmandt Ferguson explained. “Hopefully over time as there are more cities our solutions are in, we'll be able to visit in person and see the impact our technology is having.”
Even though these in-person elements are crucial, a remote and hybrid culture will remain core to how Automotus creates an environment where employees can succeed. “I've been a remote employee for a very long time, even before the pandemic. It's been very good for me in the phase of life I'm in with a young kid. So that kind of flexibility has been super important to me,” Schmandt Ferguson explains. “But whether it’s sales or client success or implementation, it's different when it's in person. And I think that same thing holds true for a team. You can have a great dynamic, but watercooler-type conversations lead to breakthroughs that you can't otherwise get over Zoom.”
The organizational benefits of in-person connection, from big revelations on your mission to friendships between coworkers, get fast-tracked at events like Automotus’ year-end gathering. Working with BoomPop allows them to focus on those powerful benefits without the stress of managing logistics, vendors, and contracts. Instead, they can devote that time to building an even stronger team.
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