Day 5: Automattic’s Grand Meetup 2018

See day 4 recap here.

Another busy day today!

After jumping out of bed SUPER late at 9:20, I ran downstairs to catch the last bit of the first keynote speech, by productivity guru Ari Meisel.

The second keynote was by retired US Army General Ann Dunwoody. General Dunwoody is the first female 4-star General in the US armed forces and is the newest member of Automattic’s board.

She gave us an inspiring talk on leadership. During the Q&A I got to ask her a question and she was amused by my name 🙂

After the talk, she was kind enough to sign a copy of her book. She signed it to Leading Seaman Abeid, which is my rank in the Canadian Navy. Cool stuff.

 

After this, I did some FaceTime with the family back home, followed by lunch. Lunch ended with me running up to practice with the band for 30 minutes.

Last day of Product Management class

In the afternoon we had a 2+ hours session with Todd Wilkens. Todd is the head of Woo, our e-commerce division. We got to ask him any questions we had regarding product management at Woo and Automattic, and it was a very interesting and insightful conversation.

When the class was done, I worked alongside some of my team members as we answered some support questions from users. I also spent some time with the hiring team to discuss a few details regarding a workshop we are planning.

Later I had dinner with two coworkers: one is a developer working on the onboarding process for new WordPress.com users, and the other is one of our HR wranglers. Great conversations and delicious food.

After dinner I help set up a room for our open mic night. This is when anyone can come up to the front and perform whatever they want. Most played music, but some read poetry as well. I sang “The Girl from Ipanema” with my Brazilian colleagues and later “More than Words” with my cousin and coworker Davi.

To close the night, I helped pack all the instruments and sound equipment and hung out with a few coworkers before heading back to my room. Another good day in Orlando.