Year in Review 2022

We’ve officially reached the end of another year! It certainly has been a good one. As pandemic restrictions lifted, we’ve had more chances to connect with one another as well as our network in meaningful face-to-face ways. We’ve also been able to invest in some new opportunities and exciting projects that we’re incredibly proud of.

As the year comes to an end, we want to take a moment to celebrate some of the incredible achievements we’ve had in 2022!

Welcoming New Team Members

We are a pretty tight-knit group here at Plank and we love having new faces come aboard. This year, we added four new awesome people to our team. Galit, Riley, and Eyel were exciting additions to our Front End Development team, while Felicia rounded out our newly-formed Strategy team.

These four members have been an invaluable part of Plank and we are looking forward to working together more in 2023!

Adopting a Remote-First Work Policy

Since 2020, Plank has taken several measures to evolve the way we work to best suit all our employees. Although we already instituted a hybrid work policy, we took it a step further and implemented a remote-first approach as a result of our B Corp application (more on that later!)

Our employees are empowered to work in whatever location they feel most comfortable. Some chose to work full-time in our physical office space or adopt a hybrid work schedule. Others, however, prefer working remotely, whether it’s halfway across the country or on the other side of the world!

We had multiple team members check in across Canada, including our Front End Developer, Eyel, and Strategy Coordinator, Felicia from Ontario, as well as our Project Manager, Jason from Saskatchewan. Kayla, another Project Manager, split her time between our home office in Montreal and sunny Costa Rica. Across the Atlantic, our Back End Developer, Kurt logged in from exciting destinations in Europe.

Wherever we worked, we connected and collaborated as a team through Zoom meetings, for both work and play, and kept in touch via Slack.

Our New 2022 Projects

In 2022, we had the opportunity to work on some truly awesome projects:

Becoming B Corp Certified

In last year’s Year In Review, we talked about the first steps of our journey to becoming B Corp Certified. Well, Plank is proud to share that we are officially a Certified B Corporation™ (B Corp™)!

Our B Corp Journey is far from over. It’s just beginning. Becoming a Certified B Corporation has provided us with specific goalposts to becoming the best iteration of Plank yet and we look forward to making further progress in 2023!

To find out more about our journey, read our blog post: Plank is officially a Certified B Corporation!

Plank Gives Back: Concordia Co-Op Bookstore + Carolyn’s Community

Plank Gives Back returned in the form of two awesome campaigns that we were super proud to be a part of. For those who aren’t in the know, Plank Gives Back is our bi-annual pro bono initiative aimed to help nonprofits and social organizations with their digital presence.

Our collaboration with Concordia Co-Op Bookstore kicked off the year strong. The bookstore’s mission is twofold: provide new and used books, and act as a safe space for the LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC community.

To learn more about our work with Concordia Co-Op Bookstore, check out our blog post here: Plank Gives Back x Concordia Co-op Bookstore

We are also happy to announce that we are currently working on another campaign. This time, we’re joining forces with Carolyn’s Community. While Plank previously participated in the toy drive, this year we’re working to provide Carolyn with a website and branding design that reflects her inspiring work!

Conferences Attended

The past few years have forced the nature of conferences and events to evolve to be administered online. For the first time since pre-COVID, 2022 brought us back to in-person events in a very big way.

Confab 2022 | Minneapolis, MN | Annika | May 9 – May 12
WordCamp Europe 2022 | Porto, Portugal | Dave & Christina | June 2-4
WordCamp US 2022 | San Diego, CA | Warren & Dave | September 9-11
Awwwards Digital Thinkers Conference | Amsterdam, NL | Maëlle | September 14-16
ReactJS Day 2022 | Verona, IT | Entire Frontend team | October 21
Boot Camp 2022 | New York, NY | Warren, Steph & Paisley | November 3-4
Owner Camp Costa Rica | Steve | November 6-10
QueerTech Qonference | Toronto, ON | Nas, Megan & Luke | November 10-11

PAW 2022

Plank Appreciation Week was back and it was bigger and better than ever!

Last year, we decided to extend our Plank Appreciation Day (PAD) into Plank Appreciation Week (PAW) so that we could stretch out the fun. This year, we made sure to incorporate virtual opportunities alongside our in-person events to better involve our remote employees. Safe to say, it was a major success!

The most important thing about PAW is appreciation. So we made sure to take time out of each day to individually recognize and celebrate our teams for their hard work and achievements over the past year.

We also made sure to take time to focus on having fun! Team bonding came in the form of playing a game of office Jeopardy, going to a pinball arcade, and even visiting a museum together.

With another successful year in the books, we are looking forward to one full of new projects and initiatives. 2023 will mark a big milestone for Plank as we will be celebrating our 25th anniversary! We can’t wait to see what the upcoming year brings us.

From everyone at Plank, we wish you a happy holiday season and a healthy and happy 2023!