The Great Canadian Offsite: Our Betr Team Finally Gets Together

One thing people don't always appreciate about managing a distributed team in Canada is just how massive this country is. Some of our engineers traveled over 10 hours just to get to Vancouver. When you're spread across multiple time zones and thousands of kilometers, "let's get together" is easier said than done.

So when we finally locked in dates for our (slightly delayed) Christmas party in January, it felt like a big deal, because it was. This was the first time in years that the entire Canadian engineering team had been in the same room together.

Wednesday: Actually Working Together

We kicked things off at a WeWork in Burnaby, where the team spent the day working side by side on the second floor. There's something about being in the same physical space that changes the dynamic completely. Conversations that would normally be a Slack thread or a video call just happen naturally. Ideas bounce around faster. You pick up on things you'd never notice through a screen.

For a team that collaborates remotely every day, this was a reminder of what in-person energy feels like. We grabbed dinner that night at Dolar Shop, a hot pot spot just a two-minute walk from the office, which was perfect for a group that had spent the day heads-down together.

Thursday: Curling, Dinner, and a Magic Show

Thursday was all about fun. We booked curling at the Vancouver Curling Club, and honestly, it might have been the highlight of the trip.

A few of us had curled before, but for most of the group it was their first time on the ice. The session was a really fun two hours where an instructor taught everyone the basics, then we split into teams, played a few ends, and kept score on the scoreboard. Watching a group of engineers try to figure out the physics of sliding a 40-pound stone down pebbled ice was exactly as entertaining as it sounds. There was a lot of falling, a lot of laughing, and a surprising amount of competitive spirit. HURRY! HARD!!

After curling, we headed to El Santo in New Westminster for Mexican food, then capped the night with a magic show at Hidden Wonders on Clarkson Street, just a short walk from dinner. It was one of those intimate, up-close magic experiences that left the whole team genuinely baffled. I'll definitely have to bring the kids next time.

Why This Matters

I've been managing engineering teams for a few years now, and one thing I've learned is that the investment in getting people together pays off in ways that are hard to quantify but impossible to ignore. Trust builds faster. Communication improves. People go from being profile pictures to actual humans with personalities and stories.

Organizing something like this for a distributed Canadian team takes real effort, from travel logistics to finding activities that work for everyone. But seeing the energy in the room on Wednesday and the laughs on Thursday confirmed what I already believed: remote teams thrive when you make the in-person moments count.

Already looking forward to the next one.