7. March 2024
Maren und Jenny
2023 – What a year! Fortunately, just like last year, we used our annual workshop to look back on 2023, because a lot has happened.
On February 29 and March 1, we, the Vast Forward core team, met virtually in our usual manner and spent a few creative and productive hours together.
The workshop days were held under the motto “BRIGHTZ” – because 2023 was a great year for us, despite all the challenges!
The aim of our workshop was to use the first half to look back on 2023 and our positive impressions and developments in line with the 50/50 principle and then to concentrate fully on the current year 2024 and look ahead in the second half: What have we learned? What specific plans and goals do we have? As a team and also individually – what do we want to focus on and what do we still want to learn?
We wouldn’t be Vast Forward if we hadn’t given the whole thing a little twist: As in the previous workshop, our meeting was peppered with all kinds of challenges and games to get our competitive spirits up and keep the excitement going until the very end. This worked out wonderfully and in no time at all we found ourselves in a race for the coveted main prize. Vast Lady Jenny pulled away with a single-digit but comfortable margin shortly before the end and can now look forward to a surprise.
But now back to the actual motto “BRIGHTZ”. In preparation for the workshop, the team was asked about their personal highlights in 2023.
The many and varied answers to this question were a pure joy, as we all have very fond memories of our workshops and team meetings last year.
The kick-off event was our spring meeting at the OMR in Hamburg in May 2023. As this was the first joint conference in a long time, there was a little workshop to prepare for it. The key question was: “How do things actually work at conferences, how do we network, what can we achieve?”
Well prepared, we experienced an exciting OMR together. Of course, our small team also went out for a delicious meal and spent a great yoga session together.
What we don’t want to ignore when looking back on 2023 are the numerous professional highlights, specifically in connection with our sustainability initiative Vast Green. The year was all about “Green Data”. Our aspiration and part of our sustainability initiative is to pass on and share what we have learned and our knowledge. We look back proudly on our first “Green Data Challenge”, in which not only the core team but the entire network took part. The challenge culminated in a grand finale where we played roulette to determine the winners (remember: no Vast Forward workshop without winners!). You can find out more in our blog post Green Data Challenge.
2023 was of course a busy year in addition to the meetings and workshops! In the spirit of “Green Data”, we finalized our Green Coding Guide and our Green Data Guide. The two guides are the product of years of dealing with the topics of green coding and green data as essential components of our day-to-day work. The implementation of our findings in clear and compact guides is also an approach to making green data and green coding available and understandable for others.
Naturally, we have put what we have learned directly into practice. Based on our guides, Vast Forward Gentleman Robert has started to revise our internal websites according to Green Coding standards.
Another highlight in 2023 was in the spirit of raising awareness and passing on our knowledge: we proudly launched our knowledge platform VAST CLASS. In compact and entertaining presentations, we share our knowledge about websites, banner campaigns, virtual leadership and the process of our sustainability initiative VAST GREEN.
Take a look if you would like to find out more.
Our Vast Green initiative has now become so second nature to us that we first had to think about what else we achieved in 2023. And somehow this fact is a highlight in itself, because after we started taking care of our own sustainability in 2020, Vast Forward and Vast Green can no longer be separated three years later.
What’s more, together with the support of our partner Wilderness International, we offset our CO2 emissions in 2023, while also offsetting the emissions of our network.
The ongoing partnerships with Hamburg Umweltpartner, AdGirls and the Diversity Charter also make us proud and, above all, excited about 2024.
The crowning glory of 2023 was our team meeting in winter, also because we celebrated Vast Forward’s 15th birthday! There was birthday cake, a team shoot and an incomparable meal in a Michelin-starred restaurant that we still dream about today.
2023 – An exciting year with many highlights lies behind us!
We don’t want to reveal too much about the results of the second half of our workshop here – as a team, we are excited about the new challenges in 2024 and are simply looking forward to what lies ahead!
