On 20th September, we held our annual Team Day at One Dalkeith. This event is always a fantastic opportunity for our entire team to come together from all our offices for a day of collaboration, sharing, and connection.
At CSY, our ethos is all about People and Places, so this year’s theme of community was a perfect match. Our team itself is a community, and at CSY, we are passionate about working to support communities. The Team Day was therefore a chance for us to share knowledge and experiences and to discuss how we can enhance our community services moving forward — all while strengthening the bonds of our team.
The morning consisted of presentations from our team. To begin, one of our managing directors, Douglas Strachan, spoke warmly about his personal experience as a member of a community group, discussing his voluntary role as chair of One Dalkeith – the venue that hosted the Team Day. He highlighted the importance of community spaces in towns and their deep impact on the lives of the people who visit them. Next, team members who had themselves worked on community projects spoke on a range of key topics, such as the importance of effective communication, expanding our diversity of service, procuring funding and finances.
We also had the pleasure of hearing from one of our clients involved in the Melrose Football Club project, who shared positive feedback on his experience collaborating with us. We were delighted to hear that this client felt professionally supported at each step of the process, thanks to the guidance of the CSY Architects team. The Team Day was a chance to reflect on the community work we have been part of thus far. It was exciting to hear about all the different projects that CSY was involved with and how our team has worked ingeniously to support communities.
A with a social afternoon followed on from the morning session, including lunch and team-building games that brought the entire CSY community together
We then began a collaborative workshop, where we split off into discussion groups to brainstorm how we can further enhance and diversify our services. Each group fed back to the room, sparking some interesting discussions and debates. This session was extremely productive, offering some thoughtful insights and giving us fresh perspectives on our approach. We’ve already had great success with community projects and are confident that moving forward, we can use our unique expertise to take on even more fulfilling and impactful work.
To round off the day, we enjoyed a relaxed afternoon with lunch followed by some outdoor games, giving us a chance to unwind, share a few laughs, and build some team spirit.
Overall, the Team Day was truly productive and rewarding, we gained valuable insights into community projects, all whilst strengthening connections within our own CSY community. We’d like to extend a huge thanks to One Dalkeith for hosting us. Finally, in recognition of our ever-closer collaboration with DBP, we were delighted that they were able to join us for the team day, helping to contribute to the discussions and get to know each other more.