On a sunny morning in downtown Toronto, over 500 smiling faces made their way to the TIFF Bell Lightbox. The aroma of coffee and pastries couldn’t compete with the buzz in the air. From Canada to the U.S., from Germany to Japan, and New Zealand to Colombia, BlueCats (yes, that’s what we call ourselves) from all over the world were gathering for our annual kick-off event.
One-part tech conference and one-part family reunion, BlueCat Kick-Off is a company-wide, two-day meeting bringing together each department and global office at BlueCat to celebrate the past fiscal year’s accomplishments and mark our targets for the year ahead – and there was a lot to celebrate.
Starting strong
March 2019 marked the end of another momentous fiscal year at BlueCat. 2019 was the ninth consecutive year of double-digit revenue growth. We doubled our earnings and increased our subscription bookings by 124%. Plus, we finished the fourth quarter strong with a revenue growth of 25% over the same period last year.
How does a company build on such a successful year? The executive team had plenty of ideas. CEO Michael Harris dove into the topic of innovation and the role it plays as BlueCat approaches two decades in the DNS business. CPTO Andrew Wertkin laid out the technology road map, focusing on new approaches to service delivery through our core platform which will allow BlueCat and its customers to be far more agile and innovate at a faster pace. The goal is to address the compounding complexity network admins face on a day to day basis.
Teamwork makes the dream work
The first day concluded with a company-wide, escape room-inspired team building exercise. It was a spectacular sight to see suitcases secured with locks, envelopes stuffed with clues, and laser beams lighting up the atrium. Over thirty teams scrambled to solve the puzzles with the promise of a scrumptious dinner on the other side.
The next day, we gathered for interactive breakout sessions, focusing on elements of our 2020 strategy. From finance to sales and engineering to marketing, each stream was a melting pot of BlueCats, collaborating to take strategies from concept to action.
Work hard, play hard
Of course, it wasn’t all business. In between sessions, you could hear howling laughter as a rock-paper-scissor competition emerged. The fun evolved into a game of Mafia while others connected with colleagues that they haven’t seen in months.
To wrap up two days of getting energized for 2020, BlueCats donned their best for an evening awards reception. Hard work does not go unrecognized here. Awards were given to top performing BlueCats and those who best embodied our core values.
Empowered and equipped for the upcoming fiscal year, BlueCats returned to their everyday life with a vision for 2020 in mind and ready to build upon their successes.