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A Colombian, a Macedonian and a Portuguese walk into a bar. On a beach. In Greece.
No, this isn’t the setup to a joke. It’s the opening night of Loka’s Global All Hands, a five-day, four-night gathering that’s part social experiment, part team-building event—and entirely without precedent in the company’s 20-year history.
As a remote-first, globally distributed company from the very start, Loka has always been different. Where other companies choose an in-office or hybrid, one polarity or another, all one thing all the time. Loka chooses an emergent approach, one that allows for evolving tactics based on continuous feedback. As a direct response to the needs and desires of the company’s decentralized teams—not to mention as a reward for significant business wins at the end of 2024—this retreat is a real-time field test. It’s a demonstration of belief in a workforce that’s sustained a 95% retention rate for a decade, even in its most competitive technical positions. It’s a major investment in Loka’s culture of innovation, at the same time, a chance to innovate that culture.
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Loka’s remote workforce spans multiple countries and continents and, by necessity, interacts almost exclusively through Zoom, Slack and email. Until this week in May, when some 250 engineers, data wranglers, project managers, DevOps experts, designers, HX pros and executives are coming together in the real world for the first time. The location is a beach resort set amid the Halkididi, or three peninsulas, on the Aegean Sea about 90 minutes outside Thessaloniki. The concept is “working retreat.” The reality is a unique, culture-building alchemy that adds up to more than the sum of its parts.
From the first moment of bumping into colleagues at the reception desk, the vibe is a reunion with people you’ve never met.
The vibe is a reunion with people you’ve never met.
Among the packs of South Americans and Europeans and the small contingent of Americans, English is the lingua franca, espresso and Greek beer the social lubricants.
There’s no sense of forced fun common to most work functions. Instead Lokals seem driven by an organic impulse to spend as much time together as possible during their brief IRL window and learn as much as possible from this rare embarrassment of experts, as well as a sincere appreciation for each other’s individual personalities, quirks and contributions.
The next four days see countless coffee meetups, technical workshops, panel talks and presentations take place—a truly intense amount of knowledge sharing. But an equal amount of extracurricular activity balances out the brainwork: One morning the Chief Innovation Officer runs the cliffs above the Aegean with the designers. The next evening the head of compliance salsa dances with the engineers by the pool. The CEO loses a cutthroat tennis match against one of the youngest engineers to ever earn an AWS gold jacket (the prized apparel one receives when they earn every AWS badge) as a massive crowd looks on. The marketing team rides e-bikes to an old Greek Orthodox chapel by the sea. The sales team nails a TikTok-inspired dance performance in front of the entire company.
By the end of the week, nobody is ready to leave.
It’s that last-night-of-summer-camp bittersweetness of having more to share but no more time to share it. Describing that feeling without sounding sentimental is impossible. Maybe the best way to explain it is with a truism that those of us in the tech industry often wish away: Efficiency isn’t always the answer.
As a software consulting company, Loka’s success hinges on building efficiencies that differentiate it from competitors. The company has been fully remote for 20 years, meaning office space has never been a line item. The globally distributed staff draws talent from up-and-coming markets as well as Silicon Valley and operates in 13 time zones, so staff can attend to customer needs at nearly every hour of the day. These are some of the crucial efficiencies that set Loka apart.
But the traits that make Loka’s teams work hard for each other and believe in their collective output—morale, connection, chemistry, empathy—these are not efficiencies. They’re not metrics. They can’t be quantified or optimized. But they can be nurtured.
As a company Loka aims for innovation across almost every project. Loka’s AI and ML experts often invent POCs that have never existed before, using cutting-edge tech the moment it’s available. They find new, unexpected ways of helping clients deliver and grow. They iterate, they launch, they adapt based on real-world insight. As a first-time investment, the Global All Hands is a new way to help Loka grow. And based on survey feedback, it worked.
As a first-time investment, the Global All Hands is a new way to help Loka grow. And based on survey feedback, it worked.
Loka is an independent company and its leaders do what they believe is best for their people and their customers, unconcerned about pleasing shareholders. With initiatives like the Greece retreat, they’re doubling down on Loka’s human element now and in the future.
Even as Loka maximizes efficiencies to better serve clients, company leaders have learned to balance optimizing with humanizing. From our humanity friction arises, and friction gives birth to company assets that can’t be budgeted: curiosity, playfulness, joy, fulfilment, connection. Loka prizes these feelings for their own merits, and the Global All Hands was an engine for them.
Loka took a chance on its people and their collective humanity and the resulting positive energy was apparent immediately. It’s carrying into the days and weeks following, bonding individuals and teams, opening new channels for collaboration and elevating their ongoing work. This kind of magic only happens when we come together in the real world. Which isn’t a new idea, but Loka is applying it to a new context in order to stimulate our employees and delight our customers. Culture, like any kind of technology, can drive innovation, and our time in Greece is the proof.
