When meeting planners think about an all-hands, they often focus on the visible pieces — the agenda, the sessions, the venue, the budget.
Yet, they don’t always see the strategy behind it.
At TROOP, we believe something simple: meaningful work often moves faster when people come together in person. TROOP Sync, our annual all-hands, is our moment each year to create that space — bringing teammates from across the company together to align, collaborate, and reconnect around the work that matters most.
The temptation with an all-hands is to cover everything — every update and every initiative. You have everyone in the room, so it feels like the right time. But what I've come to believe is the opposite: the most effective all-hands meetings aren't the ones that cover the most ground. They're the ones that resolve the right things. Focus, not volume, is what people carry with them when they leave.
Here are the principles I keep in mind when contributing to an all-hands that works.
Collaboration doesn’t happen just because you put everyone in the same room. It has to be structured before anyone starts traveling to the meeting destination.
In the weeks leading up to TROOP Sync, our leadership team meets multiple times to refine themes, pressure-test messaging, and align on priorities. Leadership then arrives a couple of days earlier to finalize decisions and make sure we’re speaking with a unified message. That early alignment isn't just logistical, it sets the strategic tone for everything that follows.
Once the broader team arrives, the structure shifts.
Each department has dedicated time to solve problems, align on objectives, and make decisions. Cross-functional sessions matter just as much. Some of the most productive conversations happen when teams step outside their usual lanes and see how their work connects to others.
An all-hands meeting is one of the few moments when everyone hears the same message at the same time. If priorities aren’t clear in that room, they won’t be any clearer afterward.
At TROOP Sync, we focus less on volume and more on direction. This is where we introduce our annual theme to focus our planning for the year ahead. We concentrate on the ideas that shape where we’re going — and leave the rest out.
When people leave knowing what the company is solving for, how their work connects to it, and what comes next — that’s alignment.
It’s tempting to fill every hour of an all-hands. But what we’ve learned is that some of the most valuable moments happen between formal sessions — over coffee, on a walk, or during a shared meal.
Unstructured time isn’t wasted time. It’s where people build trust, test ideas, and have conversations they wouldn’t have otherwise.
One of the conversations I keep thinking about from this year didn't happen in a session — it happened after lunch, walking the grounds. That kind of connection doesn't show up in an agenda, but it's often what people remember most.
A tightly packed schedule may look more productive. But when you give people time to talk, get to know each other, and build relationships, the impact lasts long after the meeting ends.
The north star of an all-hands meeting is the people. Not slides. Not schedules. Not logistics.
People with different working styles, personalities, and perspectives. Some are energized by large group discussions. Others do their best thinking in smaller settings. A strong gathering makes room for both.
And the stakes feel higher at TROOP Sync than at a typical team meeting. People travel from across countries and time zones to be in the same room. That kind of commitment — the flights, the days away, the effort — is exactly why the environment we create has to be worth it. When people make that investment, the least we can do is make sure they leave with something that lasts.
But beyond structure and clarity, energy matters just as much.
When people leave TROOP Sync, they should feel clear on where the company is heading, confident in how they contribute, and connected to the teammates they're working toward the same goals with.
You can’t manufacture these feelings, you can only create the conditions. Trust builds when people feel heard. Motivation grows when people understand why their work is important. And progress follows when teams believe in the direction they’re heading.
That’s the part that lasts long after the final session.
An all-hands meeting is one of the few moments when an entire company comes together. When collaboration is intentional, priorities are clear, and people leave energized about what comes next, the impact carries far beyond the week itself.
TROOP Sync is a reminder of why we built TROOP in the first place. Every year, planning it surfaces the same challenges that meeting planners face everywhere — coordinating travel, structuring time, making sure the right people are in the right conversations. The difference between a meeting that moves a company forward and one that just fills a week comes down to intention and design. That's the problem TROOP exists to solve.