Lucidica Strategy Away Day 2022

One of the most significant team events for Lucidica is our annual “Strategy Away Day,” where we share ideas for growing the company, gain new perspectives and, most importantly, have a wonderful time together. 

For the first time since the Covid19 outbreak, we were able to hold a face-to-face Strategy Away Day on September 10, 2022. Well, half.. 

Our last two SADs have been spent cooped up in front of our computer screens, but that hasn’t stopped us from hatching some pretty spectacular plans, including taking our Ukraine and London teams to a new place this summer for their SAD. Sadly, the ongoing conflict in Ukraine again forced us to abandon our plans, but despite the disappointment of not being able to bring the London and Ukraine teams together, everyone still made the most of the day and had a great time, nonetheless. 

The London squad spent the entire day in Brighton, while the Kyiv team spent the morning in our Kyiv office, then headed to the lovely country side to complete some team-building tasks. 

How did our SAD get started? 

Tom J’s presentation, in which he welcomed everyone as the company’s director, was the first thing on the agenda. Our Operations Manager, Hannah, gave a presentation detailing the team’s progress over the last year, the changes we implemented as a team, and the goals for the coming year. Next, Lara briefed us on service desk metrics, and last, Tom J presented the company’s long-term goals and objectives to the whole team. 

Then came the best part: the Achiever of the Year presentations, in which each employee was partnered with someone else in the firm to deliver a presentation about their respective achievements over the last year. Whether it was Jamal’s “Who wants to be an Ali expert” (based on the popular game show) or Ozge’s “Lara Presentation” (a reworking of the notorious song “Fever”), the presentations have been entertaining. Let us not forget Stas S.’s creative presentation, in which he made a Pokemon-like 8-bit game in which Joe interacts with his regular duties at work. There were of course others that deserve recognition: Anastasia, with her expertise in web design; Stas D, with his very odd presentation—with a really humorous twist; and, of course, Andriy, whose presentation no one understood but yet made everyone laugh out loud. 

However, it was apparent that Joe (who presented on Olga in a very clever and amusing way) and Edoardo (who presented on Sarah and acknowledged her love of cats) were the two presenters who deserve the Achievement of the Year Presenter awards. 

Maria, our Internal Systems Manager and Financial Administrator, and Stas D, our Spider-Man Engineer, were the clear winners of the Achiever of the Year award. We congratulate them on all that they have accomplished this year. 

Following the completion of the presentations, we went for lunch, and it was after lunch that we had the most fun we had all day. 

Our Kyiv team did teambuilding at a country complex. Olga reported from Kyiv that this adventure involved riddles, puzzles, Alias, moving tennis balls, filling a vessel, rope walking, and caterpillar navigating. Fun, right? 

It was amazing how our brave engineers looked danger in the eye and did better than we could have imagined. Riddles? Certainly not an issue on our end. Alias bilingue? No problems! Puzzle-building? It takes a team, a kitten, and a lot of rearranging while moving the kitten out of the way. 

– Olga

Consider everything they went through, then add in some rainy and freezing weather. But it wasn’t that bad. “We had fun working together.”

While the team in Kyiv were enjoying the fun of their lives despite the pouring rain, the London’s three teams were competing to see which could score the most points by completing a series of challenges. There was the famous painting recreation using the items we found at the hotel, the yoga position competition, the paper aeroplane challenge to test which team’s plane flew the farthest, and the simple yodelling that can give trauma to Swiss. 

Photos and videos included are strictly for your LOLling pleasure, and to give you a taste of the day’s highlights. 

Kyiv Team

London Team

Well, what happened next?

Dinner was a fantastic way to end the night and bring the colleagues in Kyiv and London closer together. And once again, Tom gave a speech in which he professed his undying adoration for each and every one of us. Now the question is, are those feelings platonic? 

Of course not! Not only did everybody pitch in to make a film for Tom, but the video “nearly” made him cry.. (If you ask him, he might say no – but we saw a pair of teary eyes). Simply, we all thanked him for being TJ and the foundation upon which the business stands. It was a good day folks!