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This past October The WooTeam as a whole WooTeam made it to Leiden to attend WooTrip 2013. If you're not familiar with WooTrip it is an opportunity for all of us to meet in a single place for a week-long period of team building, bonding and working side by together with colleagues that typically operate in different places around the globe. This year, we participated in WordCamp Europe, as part of WooTrip.

Our entire team was all together, it was a chance for us to get acquainted with the unique culture of Leiden. Alongside this, we had a lot of fun, our entire staff was active at our help desk in order to ensure an uninterrupted service experience.

Hello, Leiden

HTML0Handshakes are exchanged when team members meet for the first for the first time on Schipol Airport.Following the departure of planes and trains from all over the globe Our team was rushing towards Leiden the peaceful city located in Holland. After several hours of traveling arriving at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport. It was then the real fun began: having lunch with our fellow colleagues.

After we found one other (bear in mind that some members of our group had not met before in person so meeting was more awkward than it should be) Then we set off for the train ride to Leiden.

The rest of the day was spent by checking into our hotel, re-connecting with long-distance colleagues resting up from their long travels and registering at the assistance desk. Then we decided to take an active part of the 3 Oktober festival in Leiden.

3 Oktober

It is the Siege of Leiden festival is an annual celebration to mark the conclusion of the Spanish siege of the town of Leiden in the 1500's. It's a large-scale street fair that includes live music, carnival rides as well being, perhaps chips that are laced with mayonnaise ("friet met mayo").

For the next celebration We met for a collective celebration meal. Also, we the business development manager Joel's birthday by presenting him with a gorgeous cake that was decorated with "Dutch Orange" frosting.

What a perfect morning to get here in Leiden.

WordCamp Europe

The next morning we awoke early to make an excursion for WordCamp Europe to meet others that were in attendance and to listen to a uplifting presentation. It was the first time we'd were able to attend WordCamp Europe, this was an event that which we're grateful to be participant in.

A number of connections were created or strengthened, much knowledge was shared and, most important lots of fun was enjoyed. Thank you to all who participated in making this event happen and we look forward for the following.

Goodbye, Leiden

The days that followed WordCamp Europe were spent soaking in as many different aspects of Dutch culture as was possible. The highlights were a number of trips to Amsterdam and an excursion to Heineken Brewery, and the Heineken Brewery and, of course, enjoying extra chips, mayonnaise, and various other snacks.

What is the significance of the WooTrips

Apart from the excitement as well as the networking, cultural and social explorations the trips provide an opportunity to get together on a more face-to-face level. This includes several (many) gatherings for members of the team, and for debugging issues together and, like every WooTrip it's the "State of Woo" general meeting of the team where we look back at the way that our year has gone, and discuss how we expect to see in the coming year for Woo and discuss ideas, feedback and topics we'd like us to go towards, together in a collective. This is unlike any other we have which can be extremely beneficial for WooThemes and the people that we collaborate with.

All of us went home from Leiden filled with joy as well as inspirational ideas and fervour to spur on the exciting projects we've got on the cards.

The lobby of the hotel changed into the official WooHQ. Support tickets were culled.

A beer tasting in Heineken brewery. Heineken brewery.

The WooTeam is united, even if it's just for one week... Thanks to everyone involved in creating this year's WooTrip one of the biggest successes, to the amazing WordPress people we met and thanks to Leiden for welcoming us to your restaurant and accommodating our thirty-odd members at your establishments (even when we didn't schedule an appointment).

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