A week in Cannes

For nearly two years, I’ve worked with teammates I’ve never shared space with in real life. We’ve “met” through video calls, and we know each other well via our constant text chatter at work, through longer-form internal blog posts, and most importantly, through an ongoing banter of GIFs, memes, and emoji reactions in our team Slack channel.

We are 11 teammates across seven countries, six time zones, and three continents. Last week, we finally got to meet in real life. On the first day, when we each gave a 3-4 minute flash talk on a topic of our choosing, I laughed until my face hurt. We drank wine, we ate cheese, we walked for croissants, baguettes, French meals, and fresh oysters. We worked on a terrace overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. We talked together, strategized together, listened to music together, made coffee and lunch and dinner together. We shopped at the Cannes market for a team-made dinner on our last night together. A cyclist took our photo on the Cannes film festival red carpet. We bonded.

I am so grateful for my team and for Automattic.