A-vent 2022: Arctive is going to...?
06.10.2022
Wild sailing, an off-road jeep tour, adventurous trekking on an extinct crater, delicate wine tasting and even sightseeing... five staff outings in five years? No, not at Arctive; we pack EVERYTHING into ONE four-day staff trip, just the way we are.
Our vision is to have 50 members of Arctive in the foreseeable future. How can we achieve this? Yes of course, by organizing fun and exciting events and offering something to our employees.
What else do we do? Of course, we order catering and transportation in multiple versions. So that everyone has enough to eat and drink and we can get from A to B in comfort. So on Wednesday evening, a rather oversized bus was waiting for us at the destination airport, with room for a 30-man soccer team - or for our team. So off we went, we thought.
Our destination, how could it be otherwise, was the beautiful Mediterranean Sea, with temperatures of 27 to 30 degrees - because where Arctive is, there of course shines the sun. We finally revealed the secret: our destination was Sicily! Our centrally located hotel in the shopping area of Catania welcomed us and yes, there was also a slight tendency to book more rooms.
Together we let the evening end, with a dinner on the roof terrace with a view of Mount Etna. We then enjoyed the panoramic view the next day in daylight.
On Thursday morning as well as during the whole Friday we had exciting and valuable workshop sessions, which were led by Martin and Patrik B.. At this point a big thank you for the great preparation and your commitment Patrik and Martin!
Well, and since three sprints were not enough for our course instructors, they put in additional "jogging" sprints early in the morning.
At noon on Thursday we went to the port of Giardini Naxos with a slightly smaller bus category. The bus came to an unexpected halt after just a two-minute ride. However, we landed directly in front of a small café - "Man are we lucky!" we thought to ourselves and strengthened ourselves first with a strong espresso. After a pleasant 30-minute coffee break, we drove on with our replacement bus and behold, there was actually one café after another.
Arrived at the harbor it was "Sailing" or better said Sailing without sails- But that didn't matter - we just trained for our next triathlon or what am I saying, "dream big", our next Ironman in Hawaii.
Our board of directors René was of course on board and supervised from the deck, equipped with a life ring, the swimmers in the sea. Kevin was chosen as team photo model, accepted this role without argument and perfected his poses. This went so far that he is now basically in every photo. Well done, Kevin!
Back at the port, against all expectations, we were greeted by our blue painted bus, brand unknown, which had previously been on strike. But we at Arctive give everyone a second chance and so, to our surprise, it chauffeured us at a rapid pace to the high altitude village of Taormina.
A great restaurant with a fabulous sea view served us delicious seafood and a dessert that was second to none. We toasted to the Mediterranean Sea and when we arrived at the Limoncello we toasted "To the Atlantic Ocean!
On Friday we dedicated ourselves completely to the work. There was no end to the awards such as "good team spirit", "best helpfulness" or "completed successful story".
These positive characteristics of Arctive employees did not stop at dinner. So Phil and Verta already walked the streets to our evening restaurant and led us to our destination, which was called "next 4-course menu please". Basically, it must be mentioned here again, the vision of a 50-member crew was proverbial again in "all mouths".
Saturday was packed with action. The off-road tour with the jeeps took us to the Valle del Bove and the Sartorius Mountains. The long and steep hike on the extinct craters of the Sartorius Mountains was only conquerable with our climber Phil and the view of Etna can be described as uniquely windy.
Since safety is Arctive's top priority, we had to put on "safety first" and disposable shower caps when visiting a lava flow cave - well, we also put on the climbing helmet - safety is Arctive's main concern.
The afternoon was free for all team members. And what do you do there? Our Walter tried the non-alcoholic Sicilian beverage counter. His conclusion: the SELTZ Limone e Sale tastes "saltier than expected".
Tanja, as our cake queen, was responsible for finding the best Sicilian cannoli and granita. A great success could be booked on the last day.
Patrick M., Björn and Lars agreed to track down the best places that offered a cold beer. Well, and some others, how could it be otherwise, solved a few incidents or implemented a whole ITSM - no, it did not go quite that far.
Unfortunately, our last day in Sicily was approaching much too fast. Sunday started again with the thought "Think big" and so the team bus chauffeured us to Syracuse again. A wine tasting at the excellent Cantine Gulino winery, accompanied by, how could it be otherwise, a 3-course meal, heralded the upcoming sightseeing tour through beautiful Syracuse.
Suddenly we were told to quickly take the bus. Why is that? Either to hold up the unfolding of the delicious wines, especially the dessert wine, with the team or simply because we at Arctive are a highly culturally interested bunch.
The sightseeing of the city of Syracuse was very entertaining and so we headed for the airport, where we arrived 3 hours before departure.
Why? For once we have no explanation. Most likely it was because we had been laid off from work and the anticipation of being allowed to work again was just too great. The fact that the Edelweiss plane simply did not leave earlier, although the most important passengers had already checked in - we really could not accept. But this left enough time for our new employee Marc to devote himself to his book, which he had even taken with him once at dinner - probably as a deception attempt to be allowed to skip a menu course. Our Markus demonstrated once again, to all our admiration, that this trip was definitely possible with a small 8-liter backpack.
In summary, this year's vacation trip - er, I mean this year's "company excursion", was a complete success. Amusing, funny, eventful, educational and simply valuable for us as a team.
Since our boss Christian always makes everything possible, cares for us lovingly and always offers the Arctive team the best in action, food, transportation and accommodations, we are sure, at the next outing the Änta will spit fire. We are sure Christian that you will fulfill this requirement again with ease. And who knows, maybe the next time the team bus will already be full to bursting...
- Nadine