You find yourself standing in a field, the sky is azure blue with a hint of clouds suspiciously forming a big K (if you squint really hard), the grass feels strangely warm but a cold breeze slaps you, reminding you “this is the UK”. You’re in awe of all the elegant glamping tents around you, the majority of Koffeecuppers seeing each other after a year, or for the first time, laughing together – it’s a whole vibe…
Suddenly, it’s dark, you’re wandering through a haze, the world blurs, and you’re floating through a kaleidoscope of scenes: Romain’s trying to catch a fish with his bare hands, Bartek’s a barteknder… wait, was he always a horse? You’re applauding with a full tent of Koffeecuppers (oh, it’s a keynote), everyone bursts in laughter, Phoebe’s on the screen and won a prize, someone in the distance yells “I’M THIRSTY!”, people are flipping cups and Romain’s kissing a fish on a makeshift hook. A flash of neon cuts through the fog, there’s weird glitter-faced people on the dancefloor, Chris is dancing in crutches, head adorned with glow sticks… wait is that a human-sized lobster doing a Magic Mike solo?! There’s a shady hooded man shaping a group’s reality with Dungeons & Dragons, a drum echoes, *SWOOSH* a blunt arrow flies next to your head and lands as an axe, Nico yells “Bulls-eye!”. Romain’s wakeboarding on a tiny pond, Kinbi is a horse now and Bartek is the jockey, a fairytale castle appears and people are racing through it, Kaycie groans as Ethan does terrible American accent impressions, Simon Cowell is at the campfire judging everyone’s singing, no wait it’s Ed Sheeran with his guitar… Oh no it’s actually our Producer, Terry, on the guitar and Koffeecuppers assembled as a beautifully disharmonious choir. You hear an agonising scream in the distance and sprint to it. As you stumble at its source you find some Hoomanz recording their voices for Koffeecup’s upcoming game “Hoomanz!”, you shake your head in disbelief – okay, oof, it’s just Dan. Hoomanz aren’t actually real… or are they?
Is this a fever dream? … No, it’s KoffeeFest – Koffeecup’s 2024 annual retreat!
Our annual retreats are usually spanned across 3 days, Friday - Sunday, and this year was no different. Our main goal is to disconnect and, since we’re remote-work focused, to gather everyone in one place from all over the world — be it the UK, France, Poland and even some from the US! Some arrived on Friday and went directly from the airport to find their welcoming swag bag in their glamping tent, and some arrived earlier in the week, worked from the office and joined our party bus going straight from the office to the site!
We’ve quite grown since last year—there were a whopping 51 people at the retreat (out of 68 Koffeecuppers at the time of the retreat). So, it was a first for a lot of people, and we enjoyed every minute of it! We’re really proud of the work everyone does here at Koffeecup, especially with the challenges remote work brings. It was really great seeing the team talking, laughing and sharing a few cold ones together.
KoffeeFest 2024 in a nutshell?
50 Koffeecuppers
3 days of unforgettable moments
Finally meeting most of those Google Meets faces in person
1 romance—between man and fish
1 inflatable Ninja Warrior castle—successfully giving everyone a memorable amount of friction burns
1 broken foot—aka Christos thinking if by ignoring the pain in his foot, it’ll go away and definitely not crack while running in the field with a mask on and a bow in his hands
1 wakeboard—still longing for at least one successful ride
2 cows—on the neighbouring property, always giving us that look
Our very own Koffeecup Slash on the campfire guitar—Terry
A human campfire jukebox—Fiona
An entire playlist of butchered songs
A nightly snore symphony (or were those bears growling in the woods?!)
0 complaints to HR (officially)