Charting the Course: Base Camp 2024

Every January, as the calendar flips to a new year, the Zarticans gather in Utah.

This annual event is a vital piece of our company culture — a time to bring our work-from-anywhere teams together, reflect on everything we’ve learned from the past year, and chart a course for the year ahead. We call this gathering Base Camp. Much like mountaineers prepare diligently for a challenging ascent, we take this time to get our bearings before embarking on another year of growth.

This year, the team convened in Salt Lake City — about a mile from the Zartico headquarters — for connection and preparation, ensuring we have the team, tools, energy, and direction we need for 2024.

Team: Who’s on belay

Zartico was founded with culture at the forefront — a culture that values all voices and builds people up. Base Camp reflects that value by demonstrating gratitude for the people we work with, welcoming anyone and everyone to the microphone, and offering opportunities to make up for 365 days of missed water cooler chats.

This year’s icebreaker activity revealed countless hidden talents among our 88 Zarticans, from someone who spins wool into yarn to someone who holds a Guinness World Record for catching marshmallows in his mouth. 

Co-founder Jay Kinghorn shared wisdom from his days volunteering with Rocky Mountain Rescue, including several lessons that hold relevance for the challenges we face. Among them was “trust your partners — you are responsible for their safety and yours.”

It’s a notion that showed up time and again as each team took the stage to share updates. (The Sales team literally roped themselves together, shouting “On belay!” as they prepared for this year’s figurative climb.) We’re all on this expedition together, and we only arrive when every one of us arrives.

Tools: Equipped for anything

When you work for a tech company, ensuring you have the right tools for what’s ahead gets a bit meta… After all, we’re building many of the tools that we will need.

Fortunately, our Data Science and Engineering teams are on it, working on exciting behind-the-scenes developments that will power a whole host of new possibilities. At the same time, every other team is creating new processes for increased visibility, efficiency, and improvisation when needed.

Another cornerstone of Base Camp is the Fox Den, where teams of Zarticans take a walk in our clients’ shoes to better understand destinations’ needs, ensuring we have the information we require to meet them.

This year, each team interviewed a client — how they use ZDOS®, where there’s room for improvement, and what they would love to see if they had a magic wand — then presented their findings and recommendations to the whole company. This feedback fuels our future innovation and reminds every Zartican of how our work impacts our clients.

Energy: Absolute motivation

Being with our colleagues in person, sharing meals and conversations, may be the most energizing element of Base Camp. It’s a much-needed refresh after a year of solving tough problems together.

We also found inspiration from guest speakers like Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall, who shared how she uses data in projects across the city, and from James Dixon, author of Absolute Motivation. James shared his personal story of triumph as an amputee who faced adversity of many kinds throughout his life.

And we celebrated the way we inspire one another every day. The Golden RVs recognize exceptional Zarticans and the impact they make on this company. It’s a night filled with gratitude and dancing — and a room of awesome humans cheering on their colleagues.

Direction: Mapping the journey

When it’s time for any adventurer to depart from Base Camp, perhaps the most important thing they carry with them is a plan. They know what route they are taking, and they have looked ahead to see what obstacles they may encounter (more wise advice from the Rocky Mountain Rescue).

Yes, we gather to reconnect and celebrate, but ultimately, we do it to ensure we’re working from the same roadmap, creating what our clients need. Here’s a sneak peek at what’s on the horizon for 2024:

• Lodging data! The first modules are rolling out now — stay tuned for more.
• A new tool for analyzing convention center impact
• A fresh way to visualize airport visitation
• Resources for connecting destinations and their agencies to the power of data
• Profile articles to introduce you to the talented people who power not only the Zartico team, but also our destinations and agency partners

Jay’s final piece of advice from his search and rescue experience was this: Enjoy the journey. Gathering at Base Camp reminds us why we do what we do, and who is working alongside us to address the problems facing the world’s places.

Zartico strives to empower everyone who joins to find success by showing up as their authentic selves and doing their best work. If this expedition sounds exciting to you, explore our open positions.