This years staff retreat was one that we likely won't forget for a while.  It was slightly more frugal than gatherings of previous years - understandable given the dreary backdrop of the current economic climate. 

Lunch, for example, was a sandwich potluck affair with proceeds going to United Way and this year we held the staff retreat at our own offices with a catered dinner and an in-house movie night, with our principal, Vivian Manasc, making the popcorn on a little machine that sounded like a vacuum cleaner.

The movie night was unique in that we watched movies that we had spent much of the afternoon creating, using video cameras and a neat little Mac video editing application called iMovie.  The movies were created after lunch when we split up into small teams.  Since Manasc Isaac's business is sustainable architecture, the movies had an environmental theme related to the all important, but perhaps little known, 2030 architecture challenge, which aims for net-zero buildings by 2030.

Despite the fact that few of us had ever made a movie before, every team managed to put together an interesting and sometimes hilarious 5 minute program in just a few hours.  During movie production, the whole office was in deeply creative and focused state and by the time dinner was served, there was a cooperative, quietly buoyant, and thoughtful mood apparent in the team.  Needless to say this set the stage for a memorable movie night in our office basement.

So here are the videos that were produced, 10 in all, with a short commentary for each one: