CometCon – July 2025
Written by Michelle Wong – Marketing Specialist
!CometCon July 2025 Illustrated Astronaut with orange circle image
We’re back with the sixth edition of CometCon, our company-wide internal conference where local and remote team members gather at Comet HQ for a week of collaboration, knowledge-sharing, connection, and (mandatory) fun.
Here are some highlights from our mid-year CometCon:
!Comet Backup CometCon June 2025 image collage
Speaker Series
At each CometCon, team members from all departments are invited to submit a talk to present to the company. This time, we had an action-packed speaker lineup with eight presentations from the Developers, Marketing, Customer Success, and Software Testing teams.
CometCon talks are a fantastic platform for sharing insights across the company. Many of the talks focused on learnings from different projects, and how we can improve the product and experience for our Comet community and partners.
Collaboration and Connection
Between the speaker session, we built in open time blocks for people to connect, brainstorm, and collaborate. These flexible sessions encourage impromptu discussions, in-person meetings, and a bit of downtime to hang out and chat (or play Jenga!).
Throughout the week, our developers also picked up support tickets to help lighten the support workload.
In addition to our company dinner and drinks on Thursday, we hosted a few optional after-hours events, including a team dinner at a burger and BBQ joint (a fan favorite), bouldering, and karaoke. We’re big believers in balancing hard work with both mandatory and optional fun during CometCon.
Celebrations and Milestones
As always, we finished up the week by voting for the best CometCon talk and celebrating team milestones.
#### Best CometCon Talk
- Amy, Testing – Winner
- Rhane, Developer – Runner Up
- Natalie, Marketing – 5 years
- Louise from WebPros – for joining us as a special guest
- Leandra – for organizing CometCon behind the scenes and keeping everyone happy and fed
#### Comet Anniversary Milestone
#### Special Thanks
That’s a Wrap
The energy at Comet HQ during CometCon week is always something special. It’s great to have the team together in person, catching up, learning from one another, and working side by side. And of course, the excellent catering kept us fuelled all week, with coffee breaks and shared meals becoming a highlight for great conversations. We’re already looking forward to the next CometCon, stay tuned!
!About Michelle Wong Comet Backup Marketing Specialist
CometCon – December 2024
Written by Michelle Wong – Marketing Specialist
!CometCon December 2024 Illustrated Astronaut in Space with planet and space drawings
We’re back with the fifth edition of CometCon, this time a mini 3-day version of our company-wide internal conference. Twice a year, local and remote team members gather at Comet HQ for CometCon for team bonding, fun activities, presentations, and collaboration.
Here are some highlights of our end of year CometCon:
!Comet Backup CometCon December 2024 Photo Collage
Speaker Series
At each CometCon, team members from each department are welcome to lead a presentation or workshop. This time we had six different talks from the Marketing, Product, Developer, Software Testing, Sales, and Customer Success teams.
Sharing knowledge and insights cross-functionally is always a big part of CometCon. Many of the presentations focused on how we can improve the product and experience for our Comet Community.
In-Person Connection
One of our favorite parts of CometCon is getting everyone together to hangout and connect throughout the week. While those of us at Comet HQ enjoy our hybrid model of working a few days in the office and a few days remote each week, it’s valuable for everyone to spend dedicated time together, especially for the fully remote team members.
During CometCon the dev teams can have their standup meetings in person, discuss and workshop ideas, and have water cooler chats (or in our case, coffee machine chat), things you can’t replicate as naturally over Slack. We believe important topics get surfaced and new ideas are sparked in a deeply human way when we gather together in person.
Team Activities (aka Mandatory Fun)
It wouldn’t be CometCon without some fun team activities! We headed off-site to a local café for a mystery event lead by our General Manager, Josh. This team activity involved creative problem solving, brainstorming ideas, and teamwork.
Next, we headed over to a Battle Axe Throwing spot for a bit of fun. We channeled our inner Viking / lumberjack and teamed up for a few games. Flannel was worn. Axes were thrown. Fun was had by everyone.
End of Year Celebration & Prize Giving
We wrapped up CometCon with our End of Year holiday party and prizegiving to celebrate some milestones and special awards for our Comet team members.
##### Long Service Awards
- Suprio Das, Developer – 5 years
- Josh Flores, General Manager – 12 years
- Liam Green, Developer
- Michelle, Marketing – Winner
- Callum, Product – Runner Up
- JC, Developer
- Leandra, for organizing CometCon and keeping the office running smoothly behind the scenes
- December – JC, Developer
- November – Alex, Sales
- October – Mike A, Developer Team Lead
- September– Rhane, Developer
- August – Ben Frengley, Developer
- July – Xavier, Customer Success
- June – Michelle, Marketing
##### Graduation from Junior Dev program
##### Best CometCon Talk
##### December Team Nomination
##### Special Thanks
2024 Monthly Team Nominations
Earlier this year we started a new initiative, Team Nominations, where we acknowledge our teammates at Comet. At the end of each month, anyone at the company can submit a Team Nomination to give kudos and shoutouts to someone they work with who they feel deserves to be recognized for their work. The nominees are given a shout out during our Friday team meeting at the end of each month, and a prize goes to the top nominee. Congratulations to this year’s winners!
That’s a wrap
There’s always such a buzz in the office for the week of CometCon, and this mini CometCon was no exception. It was great to get everyone together for collaboration, connection, and celebration as we wrap up 2024 and look forward to next year. We can’t wait to bring you on the journey with us for what’s next for Comet in 2025!
!CometCon December 2024 Team Photo at Axe Throwing
!About Michelle Wong Comet Backup Marketing Specialist
CometCon – June 2024
Written by Michelle Wong – Marketing Specialist
!CometCon June 2024 Astronaut in Space
Last week we held our fourth CometCon event, a company-wide internal conference where both local and remote team members gather at Comet HQ for a week of collaboration, workshops, speaker talks, and connection.
As usual, our General Manager, Josh, kicked off the week with a fun team activity – this time splitting everyone into teams for an interactive quiz. After the winners were presented with their prizes, we launched into the conference sessions.
Here are some highlights from the week:
Speaker Series
At each CometCon, every department is welcome to submit a topic for the speaker series. This week we had three technical deep dives from our developers, a website workshop with the Marketing team, customer insights from the Sales team, and a Q&A session focused on our European distributor market. It’s always valuable to learn from different departments and discuss how we can improve the product and experience for our customers.
Developer Sprint
During CometCon, our developers worked in pairs on a dedicated week-long sprint. It was great to partner the devs up with someone they don’t usually work with to generate fresh ideas and smash out specific projects.
Open Discussions
In addition to the speaker series, we also had several open discussions about the product roadmap and our company direction, facilitated by Callum, our Product Engineering Manager, and Josh, our GM. Everyone was welcome to ask questions and contribute to the conversation in a town hall style discussion. It’s important to us to hear different perspectives and thoughts from all the teams on Comet’s journey.
Time for connection
One of the most valuable parts of CometCon is the unstructured time to connect and chat with everyone in person, especially for our fully remote team members. Even for those who work at Comet HQ – our company has a hybrid model where a couple days are remote each week – it is valuable to have everyone together for a full week. We find that the conversations and innovative ideas that get tabled over a shared plate of tacos or a pint at the pub, it something you just can’t replicate over Slack.
That’s a wrap
This was our best CometCon yet! The energy and buzz of having everyone together was amazing. Huge thanks to the event organizers for another successful CometCon! We can’t wait for the next one.
