HOO KOO E KOO Retreat #1
Article
HOO KOO E KOO Retreat #1
Article
To celebrate 3 years of HOO KOO E KOO and all the beautiful things that happened so far, which you can never have enough of, we decided to add one more great moment: We organized our first retreat!
Most of our core team has gathered to spend 9+ days together on the coast of Oaxaca, Mexico.
In a typical HOO KOO E KOO fashion, we had people from Algeria, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Norway, Philippines, Poland, and the USA — and none of us lives where they started. We rented a house by the beach and we finally got to spend some time together on one continent.
This retreat was an experiment, to see if we can have fun, bond but also work at the same time. We have a lot of projects on, and it was somewhat risky. So our very badass production team programmed the hell out of it just in case ⚡️
Yoga, work, surfing, and love!
We did some yoga, jogged, meditated, and relaxed 🧘♀️
We worked (a lot!) and exchanged ideas and tips for making things happen. It was amazing that our team members would wake up and slash through their work on their own accord.
Initially, our biggest fear was any negative impact on ongoing projects — but there was none, and the flowing exchange of thoughts allowed us to likely even bring things to a new level.
Apart from the core team, we invited a couple of members of the HOO KOO E KOO Tribe to join us. Chester couldn’t join as he needed to take care of things back home. We had his virtual presence all along…
…but still missed him dearly. Next time nobody will break a leg before the retreat 🤞
We shared some incredible food, bonfires, music, and experiences of local ceremonies.
We hosted talks on innovative & effective ways to impact climate change on a global scale (with Jørgen Bo of Choose.today) and spreading our ideas, products & art (with Chris Erthel of Meller, one of the best social media marketers around!).
We also released 400+ freshly born little turtles with a team of local sea turtle sanctuary.
Being together
More than anything, we had some beautiful time together, beyond the daily Slack, Hangouts, and swapping files around.
To me, personally, it’s been just incredible how we all flowed together. How everyone contributed their talents, skills, ideas, breakfasts, driving, teaching and pouring mezcal. How everyone connected and I think truly became friends (some went on to travel together after :)). It impressed me how everyone worked hard and didn’t let anything slip despite cell towers going out and paradise just waiting to distract with its beauty all around. We not only had a beauty of time but also kept delivering on all of our projects. What a badass team ❤️
— Matt Cyrankiewicz, HOO KOO E KOO founder
HOO KOO E KOO is growing and it feels mega important to dig deeper to nurture and grow our culture. We began mostly as a group of friends that get to work together, and, as the team expands, and we onboard new people, it will be important for us to inspire a team united by the love for beauty, giving, nature, creative problem-solving and finding inspiration in all corners of the world.
The purpose of HOO KOO E KOO is to help bring a positive future for humanity through the best designs, products, collaborations, and startups. It seems only possible if our time — despite being distributed and decentralized — is as human as possible :)
Love and a red nose can’t be hid.
— Thomas Holcroft
More of these to come ️🌴
Thank you for reading!
With love, HOO KOO E KOO