All-Employee day, June 2017

On Friday 16th June, we kicked off our all-employee day in our Dublin office. All of our Serbian colleagues had travelled from our Belgrade office the previous evening, and this was the first time that the entire team would be together under one roof. The atmosphere around the office was great: many long-serving employees were excited to be reunited with their overseas colleagues and friends, while newer employees were delighted with the opportunity to put faces to the names we work with day-to-day over messaging and Skype.

After the introductions, catching up, and some welcoming words from our COO John Wall, it was time to get to get to work, albeit briefly! The morning presented a valuable opportunity for our various teams to discuss their different projects in person, so they broke away to meeting spaces around the office to make the most of this time.

In the afternoon session, Shane Craddock took the floor as MC. Shane has many strings to his bow (including Coach, Mentor, Author) and is currently engaging strategically with our leadership team here at Aspire to help us achieve top results for the business and our employees. Shane shared some words before welcoming Jamie Andrew (Quadruple Amputee, Mountaineer and Speaker) to speak to the Aspire team, who told us the incredible story of his life so far, drawing on his experiences and the adversity he has overcome.

Jamie’s story has many insights and perspectives that can be applied to life and to business and it was a really unique way to get the Aspire team thinking about our own skills, and our attitude to opportunity, adversity and changes both personally and professionally. Jamie finished up with a Q&A, before Aspire founder and CEO Bill Walsh took the floor. Bill’s presentation provided us with brilliant insight in to where we have come from as Company, where are now and where we are going to be in both the near and more distant future. The team left the session feeling proud of what has been achieved on the journey to date and excited for what lies in the weeks, months and years ahead.

On Saturday morning, the fun continued with a trip to Glendalough and a BBQ in Bill’s home.  A couple of days were a massive success and no doubt it was a huge source of pride to Bill and Leadership team to finally get the entire Aspire team together. Maybe next year, we’ll turn the tables and get everyone together in Serbia…..!