Bolt teams gather in Tallinn for Summer Summit 2022
Sep 14, 2022
During the first week of August, Tallinn welcomed Bolt employees from across Europe and Africa for our Summer Summit. At this annual event, we discuss our mission, vision, celebrate our recent achievements, and plan our next ones!
Over 2,000 people gathered at Saku Suurhall for presentations and panel discussions before taking a cruise to Kuressaare. Over 1,000 more Bolt employees from across the globe had the opportunity to watch online.
Bolt favourite Daniel Levi hosted the event and was joined this year by Louis Zezeran as co-host.
Building cities for people, not for cars
Bolt’s CEO, Markus Villig, kicked off the Summit with a keynote speech focused on Bolt’s mission — to make cities better for people by replacing private cars.
In recent decades, car dependency has become an enormous problem. As cities and distances grow without access to light vehicle roads or well-working public transport, people become more dependent on private cars. It creates a vicious circle when urban planners prioritise cars over people and create more parking spaces and roads.
To get people’s attention to this problem, we launched our spring merch collection, “Keys to your city” — created it to remind people that streets are made for walking, cycling and many other activities like painting, playing chess or simply enjoying the view with zero cars around.
Some cities are waking up and starting to repurpose their urban spaces. For example:
Brussels is planning to have the city centre completely car-free;
Amsterdam is slowly cutting cars out of the picture;
Paris is planning to have fewer cars on the streets by 2024;
And London has ambitious plans to become the biggest car-free capital in the world.
In addition to these big plans, more cities are now organising car-free days.
As a company, we’re constantly improving our products and expanding to more locations to make micromobility and shared mobility more accessible to everyone. By reducing even a fraction of the private cars on the road, we’ll be able to repurpose parking spaces, lower CO2 emissions and prevent traffic accidents.
The Summit continues
The remainder of day one was spent viewing various other presentations and panel discussions featuring our top management and external speakers.
The final act of the day was to reward this year’s best projects. Before the Summit, each employee voted for the project they felt had the most significant impact. Our Support Ukraine project was the clear winner.
Since the war started, Bolt’s global and local teams have helped the people of Ukraine with a range of business and social initiatives. In addition to over €5M in donations, Bolt organised thousands of free rides and deliveries for people in need.
All aboard to Saaremaa!
Once the conference concluded, the team were bussed from Saku Suurhall to the D-Terminal, boarding a private cruise ship. Once aboard, it was time to enjoy dinner and music from local artists such as 5MIINUST and WHATEVA.
On Friday morning, the cruise ship arrived on the northern coast of Estonia’s largest island, Saaremaa.
As per everyone’s request, the weather was beautiful, which made it possible to enjoy all the outdoor activities even more as we ventured to Kuressaare Castle.
The team was divided into four larger event tracks, each with its own theme.
🟡The yellow track was all about having fun — participants learned a TikTok dance, played Twister and did some paddle boarding.
🔴Red teamsters tested their grey matter with some brain teasers, solving tricky puzzles and equations.
🟢The green crew was dedicated to the most athletic among us — at one point, members even abseiled down the walls of the castle.
🟣Purple track members looked after the community, painting fences and constructing camouflage netting. Seven of these nets were donated to Aitan Kaitsta, a civic initiative that focuses its activities on helping Ukrainian defenders.
After a full day of activities, we had just about enough energy left to hop back on the cruise ship for yet another delicious dinner and a sea/pirate-themed party.
Later in the evening, the Bolt Band played a set on stage, followed by Daniel Levi’s band and the Cartoon.
Teamwork makes the dream work
That second day was really all about team bonding and having fun (regardless of their team colour).
Our teams had the chance to spend time with their peers and meet new people. In a hyper-growth company like Bolt, it’s vitally important to take part in events like this. Over 1,000 people joined the company in the last 12 months, and not all had had a chance to meet their colleagues face to face.
Such events are a big part of our culture; some even consider it an additional perk to everything else we offer. We work hard, but we also allow ourselves to have fun.
Join us for the next Summit!
We offer a unique opportunity for individuals to learn and develop while making a meaningful impact on millions of people across the globe in a hyper-growth environment.
If you feel inspired by our approach and want to join our journey, check out our vacancies. We have hundreds of open roles, from entry-level to top-level management, each an exciting opportunity to contribute to building cities for people, not for cars.
If you’re ready to work in an exciting, dynamic, fast-paced industry and are not afraid of a challenge, we’re waiting for you!
If all goes well, we’ll see you at the next Summit!