Hello all,
It’s been a tough couple of years, and I hope you are all doing OK out there.
For Koffeecup, we’ve been here, working remotely and doing our thing. You know the drill - video calls, Slack messages, pretending that gifs are a real form of communication (they are)... well despite it all, we really have been fortunate to continue collaborating as a team and create some wonderful things. But we never thought the year would start off with a trip to the Dominican Republic, and it’s all thanks to Maloka.
We were so fortunate to kick off the year with a creative workshop with the entire global team behind Maloka, coming together for a week in the Dominican Republic to lay down the future of the Maloka universe. And there is so much to look forward to, and so much to tell. Here are some of our highlights following our dreamy Maloka retreat:
1. Blooming Group Meetings
Imagine a gathering with a bunch of highly creative people who specialise in meditation VR apps… ok this is probably very specific to our team - HOWEVER, collaborating in person with the global Maloka team was a breath of fresh Dominican Republic air. The crucial ‘bouncing’ of ideas that a creative agency thrives off was suddenly a reality again, and the ideas that have come out of it… well, you’ll just have to wait and see in the next release of Maloka.
2. Efficient Breakouts
Now, close your eyes and imagine breaking out into 20 different work groups, on 20 different zoom calls. Not very meditative - right? (see what we did there?) In our workshop, we were able to conduct efficient breakouts following each Blooming Group session, and get down to brass tacks about how we’re going to make our dreams for Maloka into a (virtual) reality.
3. Resourcing Mornings
Before the start of each working day, we would enjoy some good food, a contemplative yoga session and occasionally, a refreshing dip in the ocean. Take a peek at the ocean pictures and tell me this isn’t the perfect backdrop for some seaside meditation.
4. Awesome Nights
We’ve learnt a lot from the last year, and one of those things is the undeniable bonds you make by just spending some good old fashioned time together. In the Dominican Republic, that meant swimming, bonfires, cocktails, more cocktails, and the best setup ever to play VR games - Acron being a highlight.
5. Mean Urchins
With mighty oceans, come great big sea urchins. Just ask our creative lead Romain, if you want to hear a story that began with a relaxing swim at sunset and ended with him being perforated more times than a Tetley tea bag. Having hobbled back to the house, Romain had to endure 4 hours of surgery to remove the urchins poisonous little barbs. All this, with only a bottle of rum and a couple of aspirin to dull his senses.
Happily Romain has emerged from this experience with no lasting damage, a newfound respect for the undersea kingdom and only the slightest of involuntary twitches should anyone ask if he might enjoy a nice session of acupuncture. Sorry Romain.
6. Technical Preparedness
One of the highlights that doesn’t involve the ocean and urchins is - the tech setup! Because you can’t have a real VR app workshop without setting up all the wires.
7. Maloka Influences
Spot anything that you recognise from the Maloka app? (hints: treasure chest, goddess)
8. Blue-sky thinking
Turns out that in reality a tropical paradise is the perfect place for pondering ideas to expand the virtual horizons of Maloka. I'm starting to think it would be very beneficial (for the project) if I returned to this wonderful beach and engaged in some high level, super professional pondering..
..say around the last two weeks in June.
9. Meeting other people that also love Maloka
It was surreal to meet the global team who are developing Maloka and realising they are as passionate as we are about it. This nail art epitomises that passion (Disclaimer: Koffeecup don’t offer nail art services… maybe virtually, one day)
10. Overall awesome adventure
A retreat, by definition, is a destination to reach. And it was indeed a journey to that destination.. airport lounge cocktails, inflight champagne, mid-taxi ride beers and those winding, swirling and I'm certain at one point, looping Dominican roads (don’t @ me). Unperturbed we courageously persevered ever onwards. Aided only by our credit cards, large amounts of alcohol and Joseph our Taxi drivers GPS, we finally arrived at our destination..
..obviously we had the best time, and are so grateful that we came out of this adventure with a host of exciting new features that we cannot wait to bring to life inside the Maloka universe. Watch this space.
