TAGS
DATE
12/8/2022
As Spatial Media Grows in North America, we’re adding to our Canadian team as we support new infrastructure projects in the Great White North. From Saskatchewan to Quebec new team members Luke Towers and Daniel Boari have been making their mark as part of our team, so we grabbed a few minutes with them to learn more about their roles and life at Spatial Media. We're also thrilled to welcome Blaine Barlow to the team who has joined us from Saskatoon! We will catch up with Blaine in the future.
Where are you based?
Regina, SK, Canada
What’s the best thing about your hometown?
Hometown is Merritt, BC, Canada; but the best thing about Regina is probably the balance between cost of living and family services.
How have you enjoyed life at Spatial Media?
It’s been very good, I get to work on challenging problems with some pretty cool people.
What excites you about your role with Spatial Media?
Getting to work on the open source project that I’m the lead maintainer for (Winter CMS) on regular basis
What is it like to work remotely for a global organization?
Much better than working for a traditional in-person organization; I absolutely hate the butts-in-seats mentality and set in stone working hours and pointless commuting. The time zone differences are sometimes inconvenient, but rarely is there ever actually a problem that cannot either be handled without help or just wait a few hours until someone who can help is online.
What does a typical day look like at Spatial Media?
Because of the time zone availability of my team and balancing raising two toddlers at home I typically work Sunday through Thursday in a couple of different “blocks”, although they are relatively flexible and can change occasionally.
Where are you based?
I’m based in Montreal (Province of Quebec), the French part of Canada. Not the coldest area in Canada, but in the winter, the temperature can reach -30C and in the summer, it can reach 30C as well. Aside from being French speakers, we are also well known for the number of squirrels we have and our famous meal, the poutine!
What’s the best thing about your hometown?
Originally, I was born in Romania, but I moved to Canada, with my parents, at a very young age. I do consider Montreal my hometown, and I think the nicest thing in Montreal is the diversity you can find all over the place. This diversity applies to people, cultures, food, architecture, and many other things. In my opinion, this is the main foundation of the city and why it is so pleasant to live here.
How have you enjoyed life at Spatial Media?
I joined Spatial Media end of last year and it was a big transition for me. My background is mainly in business development, construction in North America and architecture. My knowledge in the technology sector was definitely not as advanced as the rest of the members at Spatial Media. However, I faced these challenges with ambition and life at Spatial Media is great, mainly once you understand the Australian accent and the Australian culture.
What excites you about your role with Spatial Media?
I’m a Project Manager here and my background in the filed always showed me that every day can be very different, some days more challenging and other days smoother. However, if you like to be a problem solver and to be surprised every day, you won’t be disappointed. Currently, I’m investing a lot of effort in business development, increasing the brand awareness of Spatial Media across Canada and showing people cool stuff we can do. I love the fact that we are very young in this market, so every tiny advancement feels like a big step forward.
What is it like to work remotely for a global organisation?
I came from a more corporate background, so we always had office spaces, meeting in person, human interactions, etc. With the pandemic, a lot of things have changed and for bigger firms, it wasn’t always easy to adapt. That being said, Spatial Media was definitely prepared for situations like that. I appreciate the fact that we can be very efficient and functional, without event interacting in person or having a corporate space. Human interaction remains very important, but I feel like 90% of the time we don’t necessarily need to have a meeting in person. Time zones are a challenge, but it also helps to be more efficient for clients.
What does a typical day look like at Spatial Media?
A typical day doesn’t exist. It can start smoothly with cereals in the morning, while catching up on stuff or it could be total chaos, with clients pushing their portal live on a last-minute notice at 8:10 am. That’s the beauty of it! Juggling from clients’ meetings to internal meetings, we must find solutions for the clients and assist them accordingly to their needs and sometimes, we also need to solve some internal challenges, in order to make sure we can deliver the best solution possible for the client. It is important to listen properly, understand what the client wants and find a way to achieve it. The good news is… We are not alone! We are a great team, we brainstorm between colleagues, we have teammates capable of making miracles happen and we can do it quickly, considering the fact we juggle from Australia to Canada.
