Seahorses

Last week I spent Wednesday and Thursday in Monterey, CA with all of my co-workers from around the globe. Everyone in PeopleOps (aka. POps or HR) flew in for a two day conference which included breakout sessions, guest speakers, awards, dinners, trivia games, and plenty of parties.

The opening speech was given at the Golden State Theater which had a welcoming sign for us.

Almost everything else was held at the hotel(s), including an amazing breakout session I took on Managing Your Energy. The breakout session was shortened and customized for Google, but originally came from the Energy Project. Did you know... that sleeping less than 4 hours a night, for 4 or more consecutive nights, is the equivalent of being legally intoxicated??
The class teaches you how to maximize your energy, so that you can be more productive in the same amount of time, which is amazing since as we all know, time is finite. I've already implemented some of their tips and have found them to be really useful. I still hope to take the full class as I felt there was a lot more to learn.

Thursday night was our night to celebrated, which we did at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. All the exhibits were open for us to see, including the seahorses (how many can you find in the pic below?).

It was an amazing event, that included photo booths, dueling pianos in front of a huge fish tank, a live band that played Michael Jackson ALL night, and plenty of food and drinks.

Overall, it was a wonderful opportunity to meet new people, enjoy "down" time with people I work with on a regular basis, and really appreciate my job and my co-workers.