Syno Jalsa: Staying together even from WFH!
Updated: Oct 1, 2021
When the nation-wide lockdown was announced, every employer was forced to accustom to the work from home (WFH) model. Synoriq was no exception.
We remember carving out a proper schedule on a Google Spreadsheet. The sheet included three daily standups for each project along with the standup meeting link. We used Google Meet for our daily standups. Beginning 19 March 2020, it was the start of a new normal. It has almost been 6 months since we are continuing the virtual work model.
Syno Jalsa – the monthly fest of Synorites, for Synorites… by Synorites
At Synoriq, we have always been a relationship-first company – be it the relationship with the client, or an employee. At Synoriq, we are a family. And this family had always learned, partied, and had fun TOGETHER. During the normal work schedule, we were not able to meet everyone, and slowly we felt that the connect was missing. That’s when we decided to host our first ever Syno Jalsa – one of its kind virtual meetings where Synorites can meet, play and learn together. We formed an organizing committee, planned a series of events.
The first Syno Jalsa was hosted on 25 July. It consisted of several events including the talks from Dr. Shreya Agarwal (Co-founder, The Happy Collar) and Ankita Sharma (Data & Applied Scientist at Microsoft). Here’s how the schedule looked like.
SynoMehmaan: Over a 45-minute session, Dr. Shreya took us through mental wellbeing and stress handling. Ankita took us through an amazing virtual tour of the Microsoft, Redmund office. She also talked about the various processes at Microsoft. We also had a small QnA session where Synorites asked her about the challenges, working culture, future of analytics, and much more.
Next up was our traditional Scavenger Hunt which was organized by Mohit Singh Chauhan. The scavenger hunt is basically a list of tasks that teams have to complete to win points. The team with the highest points win. Synoriq was divided into the below 10 teams. Tasks included finding a paper clip, plastic cup, measuring tape, 4 different fruits, and much more. Teams had to send the photos to internal WWhatsApp groups. Team Blue won the competition by a close margin.
Post our lunch break, we got back on the Zoom call to begin our ad-making competition. The event was organized by Mahendra Pratap who was also the host of Syno Jalsa. Again, Synorites were formed into the same teams. The teams were given a product for which they needed to prepare an advertisement (any format). Teams were given 30 minutes to prepare the ad. Post the preparation time, teams were asked to present their advertisements to everyone. Each team had created amazing ads for their products (that included advertisements for Mental Hospital, Gau Mutra, Sleeping Cafe, Fevicol, Agency that hires singers for Bhajan Mandli). Teams came up with their creative thinking. Team Blue again bagged the winning prize with their hysterically funny Cham Cham Gau Mutra.
After a lot of fun rounds, it was now time to learn something in our SynoEd session that was hosted by Alok Trivedi and Bharti Sharma. Both took us through the process of writing project status emails to clients. It included an insightful presentation followed by a hands-on workshop.
In our next segment, SynoCharcha, we broke out in three different rooms – TED talks (hosted by Mudit Jain), PUBG (hosted by Karan Sharma), and Gossips (hosted by Diksha Mishra). In TED talks, we watched a series of videos on leadership, team building. PUBG lovers had a couple of custom room matches. The people in the Gossips room largely talked about the nostalgic TV shows such as Kasautii Zindagi Kii, Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki, and Mihir’s comeback in Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi. And Zoom-ception backgrounds.
And, then it was time for the concluding session of Syno News. The session largely included business updates and the future ahead. The host finally thanked the amazing organizers of Syno Jalsa – Aakanksha Maheshwari, Alok Trivedi, Mohit Singh Chauhan, Bharti Sharma, and himself for putting up a great show.