On the morning of Saturday 23rd March 2024, the Jamescape team met bright and early at Liverpool Science Park to kick-start the third instalment of our annual company conference, Scapegoat! Fuelled by our friends at local caffeine dealer, 92 Degrees, the team embarked on a fun weekend packed full of sessions and socials, including a brand values discussion, internal project reviews, and software meetings for our upcoming projects.
Most of our staff work part-time alongside other commitments such as studying, so we often work different hours of the day that fit around our schedules. It’s useful for the team to have this dedicated time together to hold workshops that can get easily overlooked in a fast-paced start-up company. The weekend is also fantastic for team building, helping to foster our friendly working culture.
For some, the Scapegoat food is just as important as the conference itself. For Saturday lunch and dinner, we headed down to Cuthbert’s, just a few minutes' walk down the hill from our office. Sunday’s breakfast was from the Bagelry on Nelson Street and lunch from Picnic on Smithdown Road. All fantastic places which any of the team would be sure to recommend.
On the Saturday evening, we walked into the city centre for some beer and bowling at Roxy Lanes. Afterwards, we returned to the office for the return of our iconic company awards show, the Scapies (arguably the real main event)! The Scapies featured the return of many classic awards such as Best Beard and Worst at Admin, but also new awards like Best Project and Git Commit of the Year. We also awarded Alfie Jones (Chief Technology Officer) a 3-year service award in recognition of his time working at Jamescape.
Sunday was another full day of sessions, featuring an assistive technology workshop and a company brand meeting. The assistive technology workshop involved Alfie Jones (Chief Technology Officer) navigating our company website whilst blindfolded, with the assistance of screen-reader software. It was eye-opening to see how our websites work with assistive technology, and it was great catalyst for starting conversations around how we can improve the accessibility of our sites. Every software developer also gave a Lighting Round, a 5-minute talk focused on something related to their work which they have particular interest in. The talks were judged by Zack Walker (Chief Operating Officer). Matthew Frank (Graduate Software Developer) won the grand prize for his talk on behaviour-driven and test-driven development methodologies.
Scapegoat is always a hectic, but incredibly fun and rewarding weekend, and 2024 was no exception. The team is closer and stronger than ever, so we’re recharged, enthusiastic and ready to help you with your next web application or site. If this sounds like something you or your business is after, then please get in touch by emailing hello@jamescape.net and we’ll have a chat.
Until the next one.