Behind the Scenes: Our 2025 Prague Meetup

Every year, we bring our fully remote team together for a week-long meetup. 

In September 2025, 87 of us gathered in Prague for an unforgettable experience in the only way we know how — chaotic, wholesome, and inspiring.

As a company spread across 22 countries, we believe an in-person meetup isn't a nice-to-have; it’s one of our essential traditions. While we excel at asynchronous communication on our own platform, there's something irreplaceable about meeting face-to-face. Many of us have never worked together directly, and in our daily work conversations we get to know each other — but we don’t spend the quality time that creates a lasting friendship.

The Discourse meetup gives us a chance to put voices to names, faces to forum posts, and to build the friendships that make collaboration possible.

The Week That Was

The Discourse meetup follows a rhythm we've refined over the years:

Sunday saw the gradual arrival of team members from around the world, culminating in a company-wide welcome dinner.

Monday featured smaller group activities, ending with our traditional company dinner. This year's highlight was a surprise: a beautiful traditional Czech restaurant with a stunning underground banquet hall adorned with traditional tiles.

Tuesday and Wednesday were our conference days, with morning executive presentations and workshops, followed by team collaboration time. Tuesday focused on core team work, while Wednesday brought together people who work tangentially but don't often collaborate directly.

Thursday offered more group activities, including a pool tournament that Charlie, one of our designers, organized with impressive dedication - complete with brackets and a healthy level of competition. The tournament ran so long it finished at 1am on the hotel pool table...

Friday was departure day for some, while others stayed an extra night to maximize their time in one of the oldest cities in Europe.

Throughout the week, our common room was the heart of the meetup. People gathered there for board games, impromptu foosball tournaments, and daily happy hours.

We've learned that not everyone wants to be constantly socializing, so we encourage people to participate in whatever way feels comfortable - from joining the karaoke group to breaking out Settlers of Catan.

Looking Forward

This year's executive presentation focused on a significant evolution in our thinking: positioning Discourse as the community software for tech companies, not just an open-source forum platform. We talked about making Discourse more accessible than ever, and opening up our platform to the builders of the world.

More on that soon!

We also held our first Q&A session with the executive team, which was such a success it's now a permanent fixture. There's something powerful about getting real-time answers to questions in person, especially for those of us who aren't in technical roles.

The Highlights Reel

Beyond the formal programming, some of our highlights:

• The traditional Czech dinner that remained a complete surprise until we walked into the room
• Charlie's epic pool tournament
• The annual 5K run (for those more energetic than some of us)
• The trivia quiz show, hosted with characteristic flair by Mark, one of our support managers and lifelong actor
• An ice hockey game
• Karaoke night
• Prague itself - for history enthusiasts, being surrounded by centuries-old architecture was a treat

What Makes It Work

The success of our meetup comes down to thoughtful planning by our incredible team (special thanks to Aimee and our new travel planner), but also to the organic connections that form when you bring people together.

When you communicate primarily in writing throughout the year, meeting in person changes everything. You start reading colleagues' posts in their actual voices. You discover shared interests with people you'd never have connected with otherwise. Ideas for collaboration emerge from casual conversations that might never happen in a structured work setting.

As a company that makes community software, many of us discovered the power of online communities long before joining Discourse. We know firsthand how meaningful digital connections can be. But we also know that meeting face-to-face adds depth to those relationships, enriching how we communicate when we return to our screens.

This is a core part of the Discourse value system: that as a company and a culture, we believe in human connections. We’re dedicated to recreating those connections online — but our goal has never been to replace them.

Looking Ahead…

Every Discourse meetup ends the same way: You come back needing to recover your voice and catch up on sleep, but you're also buzzing with inspiration and excited to work on projects with people who were strangers a week earlier. Prague was no exception: new ideas, new collaborations, and renewed enthusiasm for the work we're doing together.

Our annual meetup happens for one reason; to remind us why the work we do matters. Communities aren't created by technology alone — they're the cumulative effect of connections, conversations, and shared experiences that bring people together, whether online or in person.

And that’s what drives Discourse.

See you next year, wherever we end up!