smartclip offsite 2024

Our annual offsites have become a highlight in all our calendars, and on 3^rd September, smartclippers travelled to Magdeburg in Germany for the 2024 edition. As a constantly growing company with multiple offices, opportunities to get together are always welcome, and our three-day retreats give us plenty of time to catch up with familiar faces, meet new smartclippers, hear the latest company news, share our knowledge, and reunite on the dance floor.

Company updates, self-development, and strengthening our culture

This year’s event offered numerous sessions on a variety of topics, including our day-to-day business, personal and professional development, team-specific subjects, company culture, and some that were truly just for fun. The first two days started off with introductions from our leadership team. Thomas Servatius, Co-CEO & MD Platform & Technology, welcomed us with a brief history of our host city on day one, and Dr. Oliver Vesper, Co-CEO at smartclip & Deputy CEO/CDO at RTL AdAlliance, got us up-to-speed on the latest from our friends at RTL AdAlliance on day two.

Self-development is always a key theme at our retreats, as is the continuing evolution of our company culture. This year, Nadine Wagner, VP Data Engineering and Miriam Blockhaus, Intern Human Resources, led a workshop on ownership at smartclip, encouraging us to share our ideas about what ownership means to us and how it affects our daily work. Our VP People & Culture, Christian Osterhues, hosted a session designed to show us what the ‘typical smartclipper’ looks like — spoiler alert: our ‘typical’ is quite unique. We also continued last year’s important conversation about knowing when and how to say ‘no’, and learnt the value of collaboration and how to handle disputes using strategies from age-long martial arts techniques displayed by our very own Co-CEO, Thomas Servatius.

Every retreat gives smartclippers the opportunity to tailor their agenda to suit their interests, with a range of optional sessions focusing on team-specific subjects. For example, Robert Scharni, Growth Product Director, demystified greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in adtech and discussed our role in fostering a more sustainable advertising industry. Our RTL AdAlliance colleagues, Christina Sjut, Head of Broadcaster & Partnerships, and Mick van Grinsven, Senior Solutions Consultant, put our knowledge to the test in a quiz about our broadcaster clients. We also discussed machine learning, TVT profiling, clean architecture, and more; took a sneak peek into the future of smartx; hosted a coding challenge; and explored various creative ways to reach our future techie colleagues in ‘smartclip’s Next Top Talent’.

Getting our ducks in a row (and over a bridge)

For this year’s main team-building activity — led by Mirjam Naves, VP Projects & Processes, and Laura Baumann, Project Manager — we swapped last year’s eggs for rubber ducks. Although we didn’t get a chance to drop things off any roofs, this year’s challenge certainly didn’t disappoint as we embraced our inner architect and worked together to construct bridges that allowed a family of rubber ducks to cross a pond. Although not all bridges would have passed a safety inspection, creativity levels were at an all-time high across the board. Masterpieces both in structure and design were built and our smartclippers came up with the wittiest names for each bridge (but we certainly hope ‘The Bridge of Broken Dreams’ referred to the dreams of the ducks rather than the bridge builders). 

smartclip after-hours

As always, we found plenty of time to fit in some fun activities. At the nearby Elbauenpark, smartclippers could channel their inner Robin Hood at archery, hit the slopes on the summer sledding track, or get their adrenaline pumping by ziplining from the top of the Jahrtausendturm, a 60-metre-tall tower. Those looking for something more relaxing, could simply take some time off at the hotel. As we’re all about balance, our day two activities centred around getting to know the culture of our host city. Some of us became honourary sommeliers and enjoyed a local wine-tasting session, our foodies feasted their way through a culinary city tour, and those still with energy to burn got a different perspective on Magdeburg by canoeing along the Elbe river.

Time to raise a glass!

Of course, no smartclip offsite would be complete without a party. From company growth to reuniting with old friends and even a birthday, we sure had plenty to celebrate and our evening events were full of laughter, smiles, and unforgettable memories.