In the go-go-go times we live in, a lot of people work themselves to the bone, always striving to have more, do more, achieve more. While hard work and the pursuit of ambitious goals allow us to reveal our full potential and turn our dreams into a reality, they are not all that life is about.

At Bright, we believe in people and their power to achieve great things. At the same time, we believe that when people achieve great things, they deserve to have a break and celebrate the fruits of their labour in the company of their colleagues and friends.

In keeping with one of our favourite traditions, we gathered together for a pre-Christmas teambuilding outside of Sofia. We like to put a personal touch on everything we do and that’s why we invested enough time and energy to organize a heartwarming retreat for all members of Bright’s family.

Below we give you a behind-the-scenes look at our bright celebration of a bright 2019, which took place at the Etropolia Complex in the western parts of the Balkan mountain range.

Because hard work deserves recognition

To express our gratitude to our most diligent team members and inspire the others, we again held an award ceremony hosted by two of our colleagues: Kristina Borisov, Business Development Executive and Penko Penkov, Senior Splunk consultant.

The Colleague of the Year award went to Milena Kitova, Sales Operations Expert, who truly lives Bright values. Mentor of the Year award ended up in the hands of Emiliya Ivanova, Service Delivery Manager of ServiceNow implementation team, a true role model in supporting our team to learn and grow.

In line with Bright’s focus on learning and maintaining a healthy lifestyle, we gave out two more awards. The Bookworm of the Year award went to the entire Splunk team, whose members acquired a total of 27 Splunk certifications in 2019. Martin Odazhiyski, BMC Consultant, took home the Sportsperson of the Year award, supporting the active living culture at Bright.

We further recognized the people who have been with us for five years now: Martin Markov, Senior Integration consultant, Dimitar Dimitrov, Senior solution architect, Antoni Zahariev, Senior solution architect. The Service delivery manager Peter Doychinov’s recognition was one of the most emotional moments during the evening as he had decided to move on to the next adventure in his career outside Bright. Our CEO Angel Kanchev used the occasion to thank Peter for his contribution to the company over the past five years.

Because sharing is caring

A lot of people associate charity with Christmas. At Bright, we understand charity as a year-long series of smaller and bigger acts of giving back to society. Our end-of-the-year gathering is the perfect occasion for us to review what we have done to make the world a better place in 2019 and think about what we can do better in 2020.

To emphasize the importance of sharing among colleagues, we held an auction combining the serious and the funny. Some of the unusual items we auctioned off include a T-shirt signed by all football players at Bright, an Instagram course for beginners offered Desi Zlatkova , and a voucher for a meditation session with our Creative Manager Maya Staneva and a month-long subscription for Headspace, a mobile application for guided meditation.

Because the smiling faces speak for themselves

Our pre-Christmas retreat brought us Brighters closer together, helped us get to know one another better, and allowed us to recharge our batteries towards the end of another successful year for our growing team. We gave out awards, we reviewed our charity activities, we talked, we sang, we danced, but above all we had fun. Together.

You think Bright is the right place for you? Then check our Career page to learn about the job opportunities we offer at the moment.

– Daniel Penev