Viget26: Enduring Traditions

Last month, the Viget team got together in Asheville, NC, for our annual all-hands retreat, Viget26. It was three days filled with smiles, sunrises, and stories. A hearty mix of social activities, solo work time, and meeting sessions designed to inform, align, and inspire. We celebrated Viget's 26 years of business so far, but mostly focused on the future.

We've held quarterly TTTs since the spring of 2000. Those early years were a struggle, and it wasn't until Viget10 that we could afford to take everyone away overnight. By Viget15, three nights became the norm. Since becoming mostly remote in 2020, these annual gatherings have been particularly important to strengthening the relationships that are so core to our culture. Viget26 felt especially meaningful, with eleven teammates attending their first spring retreat. It's nice to be growing again.

Like everything at Viget, each retreat gets a thorough analysis of what went well, what could have been better, and what we’d do differently next time. In many ways, the spring TTT playbook is well-worn. Rather than give a full rundown of Viget26, I thought I'd share some traditions that we always include.

Survey the Staff

A few weeks prior to the retreat, we send a staff survey. We always ask:

• How satisfied does working at Viget make you feel? (with comments optional)
• Are there any questions or topics that you'd like to have addressed during the TTT meeting?

This sets the tone. Tracking satisfaction over time helps us measure the vibes going into each event. Asking for discussion topics allows the team (not just me) to help decide what we'll talk about and reinforces a culture of transparency. We occasionally ask things like:

• What's one thing Viget could do or change that would meaningfully improve your day-to-day experience?
• If you were advising a friend who was deciding between joining Viget and joining another agency, what would you say are Viget's strengths, and what would you warn them about?

We inevitably ask questions aligned with a timely theme like:

• What concerns you most about how Viget is approaching AI?

Answers can be anonymous, though we encourage people to add their name to foster follow-up discussions.

A summary report is shared and discussed among our people management team. This helps our leaders understand what's on people's minds and shapes the discussion topics we'll cover as a full team, both in the all-hands town hall and informally throughout the retreat.

Share the Numbers

Every quarter we share key business metrics with the whole staff. We pull up the goal we'd set in the previous quarter and reveal the actual number we hit. It doesn't matter whether the numbers are good or bad—there's no hiding from the facts. Revenue, average bill rate, billable utilization, head count, voluntary turnover rate ... dozens of metrics across marketing, sales, recruiting, retention, and client delivery are shared and discussed.

Our goal has always been to help everyone who joins Viget understand how the business works and how their individual work contributes to various business objectives. Then, every quarter, we review the company metrics in a way that's digestible so that each person knows how we're doing, what to expect in the coming quarter, and how they can best contribute to our continued success.

Go Deep on the Work

Each TTT features two “deep dives” – presentations about a recently completed project delivered by the team that did the work. We get first-hand, unvarnished stories of how the project was won, completed, and pushed over the finish line. Some of the best deep dives start with, “when we won this project, we had no idea how we’d actually get it done.” We always find a way.

Just as Labshares help everyone at Viget become better speakers, project deep dives help teams reflect on their work and tell the story of a project in a compelling, often hilarious, and always inspiring way. They always make me feel fortunate to work with such talented people.

In a futuristic twist, we added a breakout session this year wherein we imagined what the deep dives might be a decade from now in 2036 and presented them as if we’d emerged from a time machine. While it seems crazy to imagine the world a decade from now, given how fast things are changing, it was inspiring to look back at the deep dives we presented in 2016 and reflect on what's changed in our work and what hasn't.

Celebrate New Teammates

Part of our founding culture plan was to make joining Viget a big deal with a surprise welcoming ceremony of sorts. In the early days, we welcomed new hires on the Friday of their first week. As we grew, the welcomes were near weekly and hard to pull off across multiple office locations.

Now, every spring TTT features a new iteration on this old ritual with the same purpose. We welcome everyone who has joined in the prior year in a way that symbolizes they’re part of a unique team. The specifics are top secret, so if you’re really curious, you’ll have to join us.

Celebrate Old Teammates

I’ve always wanted Viget to be a place where people stay a long time for the right reasons. A place where you can grow, learn, do your best work, and advance your career all with a healthy balance to do all the other important things in your life. The numbers don’t lie – the average tenure is 7.4 years, and more than a quarter of us have been here more than a decade.

After our celebration dinner, we shine the spotlight on longevity in five-year increments. Team members celebrating 5, 10, 15, 20, and now 25 years hear a heartfelt toast from a beloved teammate and receive a personalized gift to enjoy. This segment of pre-planned toasts kicks off time for unplanned toasts, which is typically a series of heartwarming shoutouts between teammates that make amazing memories.

Rituals Matter

As with any company gathering in 2026, we spent plenty of time discussing how AI is changing everything. New tools, new approaches to work, new expectations from clients. That said, there wasn’t any major epiphany or announcement, no grand change in strategy, because our underlying philosophy has been consistent since the start. Viget’s approach to AI is about evolving deliberately, balancing curiosity and excitement with pragmatism and durable results.

Change is inevitable, and adapting to it is core to our success. We’re constantly adopting what’s new while preserving traditions that have served us well for decades. The rituals we look forward to at TTTs endure because they have little to do with technology. Asking challenging questions. Sharing stories. Imagining our future. Celebrating teammates.

Technology changes, and our roles, skills, and services will change with it. But the rituals that help make Viget special are rooted in things that don't change: relationships, trust, shared experiences, and the joy of building something meaningful together.

I’m already looking forward to Viget27.