Camp Blue Star

Last week, the Treatwell Tech team descended on gloriously sunny East London for the inaugural Camp Blue Star. We spent two days hacking, playing and learning, in and around a rather cool warehouse venue in Hackney Wick and, it’s safe to say, an extremely good time was had by all.

We run hackathons every six months and they are usually somewhat intense affairs with all night coding, judging panels and high levels of competitive spirit. Camp Blue Star, however, was designed to be more inclusive for the non coders in the team and a more relaxed and varied event for all of us.

But first…. Why Blue Star?!

Blue Star is the name we have recently given to our lofty ambitions to become an ever more exceptional team. It encompasses both an articulation of where we want to be, and the continuous improvement mindset required to get there. We have written a Blue Star manifesto! But much more of that another time.

Camp Blue Star was an opportunity to celebrate our achievements, to reflect on our goals and to share ideas. On day one, we held a mini-hackathon lasting six hours and with no judging panel or prizes. Instead, the whole team voted for their favourite which was a prototype of an accessibility capability for the visually impaired, in the Treatwell iOS app. Several of the hacks were entirely non technical, focusing instead on business or product ideas.

On day two we ran three parallel workshops in the morning, one of which involved planning, filming and editing movie trailers! And in the afternoon, some of the team played board games whilst the rest decamped to Victoria Park to take advantage of the magnificent weather and play rounders, frisbee and badminton.

And, of course, we made plenty of time to eat. A lot. It wouldn’t be a Treatwell Tech event without a ton of food and a good old party at the end.

As our team grows, getting everyone together is becoming ever more logistically challenging. But, in a team like ours, where culture is so important and where we have such big plans for the future, it is more than worth the effort. Our first Camp Blue Star was a roaring success. Bring on the next one!