We like to keep our blog as varied and interesting as possible, which means encouraging article contributions from the many talented individuals that make up the #MovioCrew. Last year, we added a competition into the mix to gather a broader variety of topics and knowledge; the top tech and marketing blog post were promised a tropical island getaway for themselves and their partners. There were a number of excellent contributions, with two entries in particular garnering a lot of interest from Movio Blog readers. Those writers were rewarded the coveted prize, and whisked away to two similar versions of paradise for a trip of relaxation and warm weather! We caught up with the two winners to find out more about their winning blog posts and holiday prizes.
Laura Martinnen, Marketing Blog Competition Winner
Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
I’m Laura, UX Designer at Movio. I came over to New Zealand from Finland to experience the beautiful, relaxed and outdoorsy lifestyle here. I had heard there was a great work-life balance here, so wanted to try it out for myself!
I’ve really enjoyed myself in the two years I’ve been a part of the company. The people here are brilliant, and I get to work pretty autonomously without too many boundaries or restrictions. I’ve always loved working collaboratively, which I get to do a lot of at Movio.
What was your winning blog post about?
I wrote ‘Email Lives: Email Design Do’s And Don’t’s’. At the time, I was spending a big portion of my time designing email templates and wanted to share some best practices with our clients. I understood the pain points a lot of them were facing, and felt it was important to share tips and tricks I’d learnt that might make their life easier! Those tips were designed to improve the overall quality of their campaigns from a marketing point of view, as well as the dynamics across different platforms.
Which country did you choose to visit for your prize?
Myself and my partner went to Tongatapu, the main island in Tonga. We’d heard from friends it was incredibly beautiful, so thought we’d make the most of the Easter weekend and escape to the sun. We spent a lot of our time on scooters exploring the islands, and took a ferry trip to a smaller island where we got to snorkel with some giant clams - that was my trip highlight! We also got to experience an amazing Tongan fire dance performance over a traditional Tongan feast, which was a great way to round off our trip.
Pavel Jelinek, Technology Blog Competition Winner
Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
I'm Pavel, and I’m the DevOps Team Lead in Movio’s Auckland office. I came to New Zealand two and a half years ago, applied for this job as soon as I landed and joined the team within two weeks. It was only meant to be a one-year thing, but I’m still here! I had heard about the lovely people and incredible natural landscape, and it’s all true. It’s a beautiful country, and the people are one of the big reasons my job and life here is so great. The brilliant thing about Movio is that everyone genuinely loves their job - and that makes coming into work each day that much easier.
What was your winning blog post about?
‘6 Months Of Kubernetes In Productions’. As the title suggests, it was my experience of our first six months using Kubernetes at Movio. When I wrote it, it was a reasonably new technology and I was excited to share our thoughts on it. There was a lot of discussion throughout the tech community about what it could be used for, so it made sense for me to share what I thought you could use it with and what it wouldn’t work so well in. We looked at the positives and negatives of the technology, and that seemed to really resonate with the readers.
Which country did you choose to visit for your prize?
I went with my wife to Kadavu in Fiji. We decided to try out a yoga retreat there, and it was brilliant! I’d never really tried yoga before, but by the end of the six days I could headstand! The resort was extremely secluded with no cellphone coverage, no wifi, and no roads - you had to take a boat to enter. We spent our days doing yoga, snorkelling, swimming and meditating. The food was great, the people were lovely, and we had a great time. Thanks, Movio!
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