For some people, reading the words “company retreat” can stir up some pretty unpleasant visions: days filled with meetings, being stuck in windowless boardrooms, back-to-back required workshops. At Fivetran, however, when the words “company retreat” start getting tossed around we eagerly await for the calendar invite, setting aside a week for breathtaking views; exciting activities; catching up with friends and colleagues from Oakland, Denver, Bengaluru, Kaluga, and Dublin; nights filled with dancing and laughing; and learning about our company’s history and our goals for the future.

Adventurous Activities. Each of us had the opportunity to sign up for two activities every day, including horseback riding through the scenic canyon, driving UTVs to the top of peaks, learning how to herd cattle through cowboy lessons, hiking, and clay pigeon shooting. Ten lucky Fivetran employees were randomly selected to take a helicopter ride over the canyons and learn a bit more about the area. These activities offered a really fun, authentic way to bring us closer with people from other offices and other teams who we normally wouldn’t get to spend time with. Of course, in between activities, we were able to connect with customers and deliver on the support and service that they expect of us.

Workshops and Team-Building. Alongside the multiple activities were a few interactive workshops. The Diversity & Inclusion workshop brought us together to learn more about the importance and benefits of diversity in the workplace and how we can become more inclusive. Leadership workshops for managers and non-managers brought us together to dive deeper into our core values (and taught us the importance of a shaving mirror). Our engineers got together to participate in a hackathon, just as they did on their Thailand trip. Many of us participated in a survival competition where we teamed up to build bows and arrows, spears and atlatls. How did we do, you may ask? We think we’ll stick with our day jobs — and with our buy over build mentality.

Fivetran Women ERG Launch Party. On April 9th, Fivetran launched our very first Employee Resource Group (ERG) called Fivetran Women. At the launch party, we brainstormed discussion topics, policy changes, guest speakers, event ideas and more to make Fivetran an equitable and safe workplace for women and their allies. The mission of Fivetran Women is to connect, educate and empower all female-identifying employees and their allies at Fivetran through social impact, professional development, intersectional support and advocacy. We’re excited for all of the great things the group will accomplish this year!

Team Dinners & Presentations. Each evening before dinner we got together for a happy hour to enjoy some drinks and appetizers, and to decompress and discuss all that we got up to that day with our coworkers. While we ate most meals together, dinner was a special time to go over company announcements, learn about new product releases and goals, and listen to a fireside chat with our co-founders, George and Taylor, and our VP of Engineering, Meel. We were able to reflect on the company’s beginnings, what we’ve accomplished this past year, discuss our goals for the future, and get excited for what is to come for Fivetran.

Does our annual company trip sound like the kind of retreat you can get behind? Fivetran is growing quickly — we went from around 40 ranch attendees last year to over 100 this year, all while maintaining our core values and beliefs. If you want to apply for a job at Fivetran or simply learn more about our open positions, visit our Careers page.

About Fivetran: Shaped by the real-world needs of data analysts, Fivetran technology is the smartest, fastest way to replicate your applications, databases, events and files into a high-performance cloud warehouse. Fivetran connectors deploy in minutes, require zero maintenance, and automatically adjust to source changes — so your data team can stop worrying about engineering and focus on driving insights.