Successful teams in digital media companies

This Tuesday Digital Alberta had one of its after-hours mixers. As always, Seven Restolounge was stylish, fresh snacks, networking and, of course, the discussion panel.

This time we talked about best practices in building successful teams in technology / digital start-up companies. A discussion panel (Jennifer Aubin of Techbent and Marc Wachmann of Grow Wireless) moderated by Kurtis Lesick of ACAD and a room of 20-25 people made for an intimate conversion about teams.

Here are some of my takeaways:

• It’s more difficult to get a good team together than to motivate it, especially in Calgary.
• Very tricky to get senior developers on board as they are looking for life-work balance.
• It is possible to create committed remote teams of senior developers.
• Respect is crucial in keeping the talented individuals in a team.
• Team events (even just going for beers) really helps.
• How do you screen a great team member? 1) ask behavioral questions, 2) talk about things not related to work (hobbies, interests).
• Start-up teams are a certain breed. How to choose the right team members for a start-up? 1) make sure he / she is right as a person, ready to do many things, very adventurous
• Something that has circulated in discussions before the event was