Peek Inside Our Thrilling Few Days Of Learning, Growing And Making Lasting Memories
At One Firefly, we take pride in our remote workforce. The ability to work from home on flexible schedules encourages maximized productivity while allowing us to maintain a healthy work-life balance. Plus, having a globally dispersed team makes our annual team training events that much more exciting!
Each year, we band together in one location for an action-packed team training event, where we get out of our everyday routines to learn, connect and ultimately return to work with our fires reignited. Get a glimpse of the adventures from our most recent three-day team event that took place earlier this month in New York City by exploring the highlights below.
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1. Exclusive Tours of Sonos, Savant and Crestron
During our time in New York City, we had the honor of touring the Sonos flagship retail store and the Savant Experience Center—but that’s not all. We also traveled to New Jersey for an extensive tour of Crestron Headquarters. Each tour offered our team an up-close and personal look at some of the hottest audio and control technology in a fully immersive environment.
Sonos Flagship Store
Sonos reserved an evening at their beautiful flagship retail store to lead our team in interactive sessions inside each of their custom-designed listening rooms so we could experience Sonos for home theater, everyday listening and more. We learned hands-on how intuitive it is to build and enjoy a Sonos system, and we were also given ample opportunity to ask the Sonos team questions about their products, mission and great passion for audio.
Savant Experience Center
Our team felt the excitement of whole-home control first-hand at the Savant Experience Center, which is built like an open-concept home immersed in Savant home technology from room to room. The Savant team guided us through each space while we watched the power of home automation in action. We also toured their brand-new Lighting and Energy Education space, where we gained an in-depth look into Savant’s innovative lighting and energy control solutions. Thank you, Savant, for being our Silver sponsor for this team training event!
Crestron Headquarters
Arguably the most comprehensive tour we had the pleasure to take during our team training event was of Crestron Headquarters in New Jersey. Starting at the Rockleigh Experience Center, the Crestron team walked us through a grand salon of stunning video displays to an interactive look at Crestron Home, lighting control, shading and more. Additionally, we toured Crestron’s manufacture and engineering facilities, where we saw first-hand how Crestron builds and tests their products from the ground up—from the sleek hardware of keypads and remotes to the innovative technology behind it. Thank you, Crestron, for being our Gold sponsor for this team training event!
2. Inspiring Q&A with an Integrator
While at the Savant Experience Center, our team engaged in an inspiring Q&A with special guest Chris Smith, CEO of Cloud9 Smart. An experienced technology professional with a long history in the AV industry, Chris gave us an integrator’s perspective on working with homebuyers, architects and designers on custom, high-end projects that span lighting, whole-home audio, automation and more. Chris painted a clear picture of the pain points, opportunities and celebrations that exist in the CI industry, and we left with a better idea of how our team can help his company grow and thrive.
3. Educational Breakout Sessions
When we weren’t touring flagship stores and experience centers, our team broke out into content, web, graphics, sales, project management and administration sessions that were chock full of skill-sharpening conversations and activities. During these breakout sessions, we spent quality time with our respective departments in order to solve problems, streamline processes, brainstorm new ideas and realign our purpose for the benefit of the entire team.
4. Fun Nights on the Loose!
Even among all the tours, industry education and teambuilding, we made time for fun in the city! The last night of our team training event was reserved for our own desires, taking some of us to Times Square, others to Central Park and everywhere in between. We braved the cold to find entertainment, eat good food, drink good coffee, linger in bookstores and awe at the exciting diversity that makes up New York City.
Most importantly, we took advantage of our thrilling days in New York City to bond as a team, make lasting memories and fuel our excitement for the future of OneFirefly. In the words of our CEO Ron Callis: “When you hire great people and give them purpose, magic happens.” We all felt that magic in New York City, and we’re excited to venture forward with a spring in our step.