UI, Ultimate frisbee and Oxytocin – how we are bringing EROADers together
Last Friday I had the pleasure of hosting the first EROAD lightning lectures, a new initiative we’ve just started to help us grow as a company. The idea of these is simple – volunteers from inside EROAD give a 10-minute presentation on something they are passionate about. We group three or four of these into one session, held in our kitchen over drinks and snacks on a Friday afternoon.
So why do this? There are many reasons:
Learn about each other
We have a hugely diverse set of people making up the EROADer family, and as part of that diversity we have a wide range of knowledge, interests, skills, passions and ideas. These lightning lectures allow us to tap into that knowledge base, learn more about each other, maybe discover something new that interests us.
Practice speaking
Improving presentation skills is never a bad thing, so these talks held internally provide a way to practice your presentation skills in a safe environment. Presentation skills are hugely important, and at EROAD we’ve been running a set of workshops to grow those skills. You can learn how to be a better presenter but it really needs practice, and these lectures give you that chance to practice.
Bring people together
These lectures allow us to learn about people in the company we may not have met before, breaking down barriers. Suddenly we have ice breakers, something to talk about in the corridor or lunch room. It’s a great way to kick off internal networking.
The topics covered were very diverse. We had one of our UI experts discuss UI as branding, talking about how a good user interface is part of our brand, makes us easily identifiable and encourages customers to choose our products. Next up was a talk about ultimate Frisbee, an interesting sport that is self-refereed, providing a culture of discussion and agreement. Finally, there was a talk on Oxytocin, and how giving thanks (and hugging) makes us feel better and bond better with others in the company.
Jim Bennett is a mobile developer at EROAD, as well as an internationally recognised thought leader in the mobile developer space. He is a Microsoft MVP, Xamarin MVP, technology blogger, author of Xamarin In Action from Manning publications, and is a regular speaker at meet-ups and technology conferences around the world such as Xamarin Evolve, Microsoft Ignite and NDC. You can find him online at https://jimbobbennett.io or on twitter at @JimBobBennett.