Transifex Summit 2022: Our Reunion in Porto Cheli

We just came back from our annual summit where the whole team gathers together from all over the world to bond, share insights, brainstorm for solutions, and, of course, have some fun! 

This was needed now more than ever since we are now a remote-first company. And so for 2022’s summit, we decided to visit Porto Cheli in Greece! Here is what we gathered! 

About Porto Cheli

Porto Cheli is one of the most popular summer resorts in Greece. With around 2,000 inhabitants, you can explore it by foot, check out the beach, and lots of great Greek restaurants with traditional cuisine. Not to mention the 5-star hotels.

It also neighbors a lot of interesting neighboring islands where you can cruise and have fun with water sports! We took advantage of that to have a cruise and visit Hydra, then Spetses, but more about that later! 

The Summit

Our goals for the summit were: 

1. Share insights 
2. Brainstorm on numerous subjects, such as the future of Transifex, our values, the success of our customers, and more
3. And bring all Transifexians closer together

The Hotel

AKS hotel was our choice for the duration of our stay in Porto Cheli. 

We enjoyed the pool, breakfasts, and lunch buffets but chose a free dinner option during the evenings so that the team had the freedom of exploring the town. 

And we also utilized the huge conference building for days 2 and 3 when we were sharing insights and brainstorming.

“Needless to say I enjoyed the pool, particularly so during the day it rained. It’s more fun than you’d think, as long as you stay away from thunderstorms, at least!” - George K, Marketing

Day 1: Arrival

We used the first day to travel via a private bus, get settled in, and have a welcome dinner event. 

“My favorite part about the summit was getting to meet everyone in person and having the opportunity to hang out and get to know people on a more personal level. And, oh yeah, Greece is absolutely beautiful too!” - Ryan Β, Customer Success 

Days 2-3: Team Sessions

We used the next two days to organize presentations and workshops. 

We talked about: 

• Transifex values: What do they mean for us? How do we feel about each one of them?
• Transifex group reviews: Before the summit, we hosted team group reviews with teams of approximately 5-7 people to talk about what we like about Transifex and what we may want to change. In this session, we talked about our conclusions and the path forward.
• The Transifex of today and tomorrow: What is the current state of Transifex? And where do we want to go in the future with a common goal in mind?
  
  “To be honest, I believed that the conferences would be quite boring, discussing about very low level topics and becoming too technical, but I was so wrong. They were quite interesting, engaging and made me learn a lot about Transifex and its future.” - Konstantinos K, Engineering
• Games: Sessions don’t have to be all about sharing insights. We played a couple of games with quizzes as well as blindfolding one team member and letting the others guide the way.
  
• Customer simulation: In this session, we built a localization team with translators, developers, a reviewer, a content manager, as well as a localization manager, and translated a website by using Transifex.
  
  The teams tried various solutions but the team that went with Transifex Native had the most success as everything worked easily and flawlessly after just 1 hour and 30 minutes of work!
  
  “It was really amazing! Especially when we collaborate and have fun!.My favorite part was the chance we all had to bond with each other! I couldn’t be more proud of being part of such a wonderful team.” - Maria. A, HR
• Brainstorming: In day 3, we brainstormed in a variety of different subjects as a team. Like: How do we help our customers be more successful? How do we make Transifex easier to find and adopt? How should our product evolve over the next 5 years?
  
  “I loved seeing all these people presenting their own or their teams' ideas in front of a large audience.” Panos P, Marketing

Day 4: Fun Activity Day, Value Awards, and Dinner 

After the sessions, we went cruising around the local islands of Spetses and Hydra. 

When we arrived at Spetses for lunch, we also awarded the Transifexians that upheld our values the most. These values are: 

1. Advocate for the customer
2. Be your whole self
3. Be a true teammate
4. Truly own it
5. Consistently grow

For each value, we picked two professionals. Congrats on the awards, everyone! 

Then, at the end of the day, we went for a rooftop dinner. 

“Let’s go back, please!” Lena S, Sales

Day 5: Coming Back Home

All good things eventually come to an end. 

On our way to the Athens airport, before waving goodbye, we took a stop by Epidaurus to check the museum and the Epidaurus theater, along with more ancient sights. 

Plus a great view on top of the theater. 

Closing the summit with some Transifexian impressions: 

“These days with the team were invaluable. Transifex has such great people both to work with and hang around

Overall, those days felt like a celebration of our core values but also the mutual respect and "love" that is shared in the team. At the end of the day maybe this is the reason why TX brings out the best of us all!

I am feeling blessed to be part of this all!” Andreas S, Engineering

“Summit helped all of us realign toward our common goals and demonstrated what our team’s unlimited potential is “Cooperation is the thorough conviction that nobody can get there unless everybody gets there” Nicolas K, Product 

“What an amazing event! It was full of productive collaboration, brainstorming, exchange of cool ideas and absolute fun! I had a blast each and every day, from the sessions that allowed everyone to participate, present, and have a voice, to the activities, including our full-day cruise and a very special roof-top team dinner. My favorite part was that our people bonded more; even on the last day which was free time dinner, we ended up having dinner all together at one place instead of splitting up. I am so proud to be part of such a cool and talented team.” Eleni K, HR

“I never believed that I could have so much fun and laughs with my colleagues, I was imagining it as more “serious”. In general, I have amazing memories and I believe I made some new friends (even if they are far away). Hope to see you all soon, and looking forward to the next summit in 2023.” Konstantinos K, Engineering

“The experience was incredible, the place was beautiful and the islands simply amazing. All the experience with the 2-day conferences and hands-ons were simply incredible, a lot of things for the future of Transifex, a lot of things for the present of Transifex, in general a lot of things learned.

Special thanks to all the organizers and doers, because without them the summit probably would not take place.

See you on the next one!” Pablo S, Engineering