October Onsite: Putting the Sass in SaaS

Published:
Oct 11, 2022
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Category:
Company News

Starting the Quarter off with a Bang

To kick off Q4, the Apprentice team gathered in Jersey City for a company-wide onsite.

There were brainstorms! There were workshops! There was collaborative goal setting across teams and departments! And best of all, there was the opportunity to connect with our coworkers in real life, in real time, and make new memories together.

Read on to learn about our top highlights from this week’s event.

Monday: CEO Keynote & Special Guest

Opening Keynote from Apprentice CEO

Our onsite started with a keynote presentation from our CEO and co-founder Angelo Stracquatanio. He explored our company’s trajectory over this past year: where we started, how far we’ve come, and our plans to finish out the year strong and dive headfirst into 2023.

Angelo’s passion for our company mission is inspiring, and his enthusiasm is infectious. And no matter how large our company grows, he always takes the time to catch up with our team one on one:

We’ve come so far this past year, but with Angelo at the helm it’s only the beginning! Read his inspiring story to find out how and why he brought our company to life.

Special Guest: Sharon Orr from CSL

After Angelo’s keynote, we were treated to a presentation from a special guest: one of our clients, Sharon Orr from CSL!

Sharon is a Manager, Innovation & Technical Operations at CSL, and a big fan of our company’s mission to replace paper with digital in pharma manufacturing. Proof in point: she traveled all the way from Melbourne, Australia, to join us for this onsite!

Sharon gave an amazing presentation on how she worked with our team to help eliminate all paper processes at her company. It was inspiring to get a glimpse of the real-world applications of our software, and it was wonderful to witness her deep gratitude and excitement for the work our company is doing.

Want to find out more about Sharon’s journey from paper to digital through Apprentice’s Tempo Manufacturing Cloud? You can read her story here.

After Hours: Rooftop Pizza Party

With so many compelling presentations on the books, we needed some brain food to help us digest all these learnings. And by brain food we mean carbs — hey, the science backs it up!

Once we concluded our opening day, our team headed to nearby Porta for some Italian eats. After all, it wouldn’t be Jersey if we didn’t add some pizza to our jam-packed agenda.

It was great getting to unwind after a long day and reconnect with our teammates over endless plates of pizza and pasta.

After dinner, we made our way upstairs for drinks and desserts on Porta’s rooftop bar.

And we ended the night with a photo shoot of our Digital Bros™, who may or may not have a side hustle as a 1990’s boy band:

Tuesday & Wednesday: Breakout Sessions

As our onsite progressed over the week, we took Monday’s learnings and ran with them, finding ways to put them into practice and make them stick.

We even have a phrase for this process: SST (sleep, shower, think).

Often, taking a bit of time to ruminate over our ideas is exactly what we need to make them a reality!

On Tuesday and Wednesday, we took the time to “SST” so we could turn our goals into game plans.

To accomplish this, our team broke out into smaller tiger teams to discuss sessions packaging, operations, product updates, and more. There was also a big focus on employee well-being, from community involvement to mental health and beyond. It feels good to be part of a company that takes care of the whole person, not just the employee.

And we’d be lying if we said we didn’t take a few minutes to stop and smell the roses — in this case, the jaw-dropping New York City skyline view from our office windows.

Thursday: Strategic Advisory Board Meeting

Here at Apprentice, we’re proud to work with some of the most innovative and forward-thinking leaders in the life sciences. To conclude our company onsite, some of these great minds came together during a Strategic Advisory Board meeting to talk about industry trends and challenges.

We kicked off Thursday’s events with a thought-provoking discussion about how modern pharma manufacturing systems like Tempo can help improve manufacturing processes.

We’re honored to have the opportunity of working with some of the most innovative leaders in pharma. We’re even more honored to get to hear their insights in person and gather feedback on what's critical to today's drug manufacturing processes.

We’d like to extend our heartfelt thanks and gratitude to our contributors from Bristol Myers Squibb, Catalent Pharma Solutions, CSL, ElevateBio, Gilead Sciences, Merck, Moderna, Resilience, and Synthego Corporation who traveled to our Jersey City headquarters to be a part of this conversation.

Highs & Lows: Epic Meals, Irksome Elevators

When in Jersey City, gorge… right? Pretty sure that’s how the saying goes. And we followed it to a T, breaking bread with our colleagues and clients all over the city:

But what goes up must come down… And there was a semi-scary elevator moment that added a flair of drama to the event. Okaaaay, perhaps only spooky for the one non-smiling face in this photo (this humble author, who is ~~allegedly~~ definitely not afraid of heights or cramped spaces).

On our long elevator ride down from the 38^th floor at our company headquarters, this crew got stuck for a minute or two on the way down. But in short order, all was sorted and we were on our way. And besides, what says team bonding more than a forced shared elevator experience?

Closing Thoughts

Travel isn’t easy. But with this team, it’s worth it.

Apprentices came from far and wide: West Coast, down south, and even overseas.

There’s really nothing like catching up with a coworker over breakfast, or getting to brainstorm with someone in real life and bounce ideas off each other at warp speed.

As our Sr. DevSecOps Engineer Jim B expressed, “What a great couple of days with you all. I feel so refreshed and fired up to see what we continue to build together.”

Carving out time for these in-person connections is what makes our company so strong, passionate, and innovative. And getting to host in-depth conversations with our colleagues and clients about the future of life sciences helps us remain on the cutting edge of MES technology.

Want to Be a Part of Our Next Onsite?

Want to join our growing team of passionate problem-solvers who are changing the future of medicine? Check out our open positions today!

EXPLORE CAREERS

Want to Keep Reading?

We’ve got you covered:

Explore our resource library for informational white papers on pharma, tech, and everything in between.
Check out our blog for our latest events, plus days in the life of our all-star Apprentices hard at work behind the scenes.
Dive into our life science glossary to learn about our favorite science terms and see how they all fit together.

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