The Winter of Our Retreat

In mid February, our tight-knit team here at Mobility Labs cooked together, glided down a snowy slope, and co-created something out of nothing as part of our third corporate retreat. We also got sore, lost, and sick, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Previously we enjoyed the crystal Caribbean water of Cabrera in the Dominican Republic, but this year we landed for a week in the white snow-capped mountains of Colorado.

Speaking of challenging, not only did we need to adapt to the high altitude — bloody noses, increased heart beats, and apnea were part of the package — but also to the cold. I haven't experienced snow before. Real snow, anyway. My closest encounter was a feeble snowfall in New Hampshire. For most people in my native Colombia, the closest experience with snow is at the mall ice-skating rink. I learned a valuable lesson soon after arriving in Denver: do not step on thin sheets of black ice.

The lodge was huge. We toured the house and realized there was more than enough space for the ten of us. By Sunday morning, everyone had arrived. Sean cooked breakfast burritos and freshly ground Colombian coffee. He kicked off the retreat with a talk on the state of the company. The team was able to visualize much of its accomplishments for client and internal work, and we all ended up highly motivated to create more products for social good.

The Hackathon was an important part of our retreat. On Monday morning, everyone brainstormed product ideas, pitched them to the group, and the team voted on their favorites. The best ideas fit in two categories: Nu's Treehouse and New Development. The New Development team created an Image Hosting and Commenting service called Skimg. The Nu's Treehouse team developed a literacy activity based on the world of Nu's Treehouse, a game designed to get kids to recognize cooking items associated with the beginning sounds of words, working in both English and Spanish.

Over the next few days, team members gave their own presentations. Rick spoke about top players in the field and ways to improve our design process. Jason shared his ideas on tech trends. Candy discussed benefits and challenges of implementing games in the classroom. I talked about design fiction and the work Mobility Labs is doing on the future of education.

On Monday afternoon, we got our ski and snowboard equipment. Sean taught us how to ride the chairlift, how to strap up with the board perpendicular to the slope, and how to head downhill. We often fell down on our knees and butts while getting used to pressure and edge control. After a while, I managed to go all the way down in the frontside position but had a hard time with the backside.

On Wednesday, we hit the slopes again. Sean discovered an easier way to get to Peak 8 from a nearby slope. After a few tries, I was able to stand up in the backside position, putting pressure on my heel edge, and got a feel for side-slipping. Next came backside and frontside turns. I fell down a lot, but noticed that when I successfully turned, it was because I involved my head, shoulders, hips, and feet in the rotation.

Team members also cooked throughout the week. Sean made pancakes and yuca for breakfast, Jason fried chicken for lunch, and Julio prepared an outstanding shiitake and fennel risotto pastry for dinner. Candy surprised us with a different ice cream flavor every day. One night we played the game Kings — the US team introduced the Colombian team to this quintessential American drinking game.

On Friday afternoon, we packed and got everything squared away before leaving. We turned quiet and silent, a feeling I can only describe as the "pre-post-ML-retreat blues." Everyone was sore and tired, but we wanted more, so we entered the hot tub. From the angle where we were sitting, the sun's rays hit snow-covered roofs and made them sparkle. Julio had an idea: on the last retreat we went scuba diving, why not try snow diving this time? Sean jumped out of the hot tub, laid on his back, made some angels in the snow-covered patio, and jumped back in.