Recommended Apps

Shopify Uniting Offices, Remote Culture by TV-ifying Meetings

Shopify values its employees as much as its merchant partners. Even though the miscalculated pandemic bet that resulted in 10 percent workforce layoffs, compensations and settlements were done in the most decent way possible. The Canada-based e-commerce giant leads the tech industry with initiatives like remote work and Flex Comp model for compensation. However, what […]

September 28, 2022
Team meeting conducted through TV broadcast

Photo courtesy: Product School (Pexels)

Shopify values its employees as much as its merchant partners. Even though the miscalculated pandemic bet that resulted in 10 percent workforce layoffs, compensations and settlements were done in the most decent way possible. The Canada-based e-commerce giant leads the tech industry with initiatives like remote work and Flex Comp model for compensation. However, what unites Shopify’s traditional offices with its remote culture is TV-ifying company meetings.

“Shopify had a very big interest in uniting all of their offices and all of their existing remote culture, which was all before the pandemic hit,” Stewart Gilmour was quoted as saying by BetaKit.

A Humber College in film and TV production, Gilmour was recruited by Shopify in 2017 to manage its live streaming. Initially, he was one of the four employees responsible for live streaming Shopify’s town halls and leadership communications to respective teams.

Gilmour added that these broadcasts were hosted by five employees, who would reach 5,000 employees working across three time zones.

What is TV-ifying?

It is a video conferencing model introduced by Shopify, which conducts large meetings like a Zoom call with an added cost of production. It involves the best of cameras, studio lighting, graphics and clear audio feeds to produce a TV-like broadcast of the monthly town hall.

After the coronavirus pandemic, the remote culture has rising among tech companies worldwide. In 2020, Shopify’s broadcast team leader Zack Duncan had explained in an interview that experiments like TV-ifying offers employees “an immersive experience and feel that they are all valued members of this company, even if they aren’t sitting in the front row.”

Under the leadership of Duncan, Shopify has been TV-ifying product demos, show and Ask Me Anything sessions to address queries of employees. “Our mission as a broadcast team is to allow you to stay connected to the office spaces and not feel isolated just because you decided to work remotely,” Duncan had told NewTek.

How TV-ifying Works?

For Shopify, its broadcasting team has been TV-ifying shows that are planned and produced remotely. The live streaming comes with less than 10 seconds of latency. For broadcasting, Shopify set up booths in regional offices in Ottawa, Toronto, Kitchener-Waterloo and Montréal.

“This is where Shopify really pulled together a wicked group of people. It wasn’t without its struggles. We definitely had a couple of months of trial and error to figure out the best plan to get these completely virtual shows happening,” Gilmour said.

TV-ifying Growth

The team of four when Gilmour joined Shopify has expanded manifold in the last two years. In now has a PIT (production infrastructure technology) crew that created a “home suite” for Shopify president Harley Finkelstein. His media appearances, Mad Money show and 2021 Shopify’s Reunite conference were moderated by the PIT crew from the home suite.

Source: CNBC

While other teams at Shopify struggled during the pandemic, its broadcasting team ensured TV-ifying at least 17 shows in a week. By August 2020, the team admitted having produced Hollywood-like shows for Shopify. According to Gilmour, they hired additional graphics professionals for better quality and broadcasting operators to ensure faster turnarounds.

“It became like clockwork. I feel like our level of production was that of a live television broadcast, if not better,” Gilmour added.

By the end of 2020, TV-ifying was reaching 70 percent of Shopify’s 10,000 workforce.

Where is Gilmour Now?

In January, Gilmour left his job at Shopify to join Wealthsimple as an A/V specialist. One third of Shopify’s current broadcasting team members have come from traditional TV or film production background. Employees from creative background and event management support the rest of TV-ifying team. “It became more like an agency,” Gilmour said in praise of Shopify.

However, Shopify terminated 32 employees from its broadcasting team in the infamous 10 percent layoffs. The information was reported by betakit.com based on a deleted tweet by Max Siegel, a former broadcast technician at Shopify.

Trend Inspiring Others

Shopify’s TV-ifying experiment has inspired companies like Airbnb that runs a similar broadcasting model called OnAir. For Wealthsimple too, Gilmour is building a TV-fying model to broadcast internal video communications.

​​“I think a lot of companies are trending towards having internal communications look like this in the tech space, rather than a regular Zoom call or a Google Meet,” Gilmour said.

Last month, ApplyBoard adopted a similar model for TV-ifying its bi-monthly, company-wide Vision Meeting. “It was an incredible feeling to have many team members gather both in-person and virtually for our vision meeting in August,” Martin Basiri, co-founder and CEO of ApplyBoard, told BetaKit.

“The energy of the meeting was invigorating, and it allowed all team members to feel connected,” Basiri added.

While Shopify’s broadcast team has been reduced from 45 to 13 members, Gilmour feels that the TV-ifying trend is not over at Shopify or any other company in the world. “I think there’s an opportunity for other companies to pick these people up if they want to invest in levelling up their internal communications,” he said.

Explore relevant categories: News

Explore relevant tags: Shopify, Shopify TV-ifying, TV-ifying

Today's top shopify apps

Product Reviews

Product Reviews

3.6 1,841 Reviews
eBay

eBay

3.1 986 Reviews
Bold Quantity Breaks

Bold Quantity Breaks

4.6 851 Reviews
Amazon by Codisto

Amazon by Codisto

4.8 761 Reviews
SMART Express

SMART Express

4.8 351 Reviews

Let us cover your success story

  • Are you running a successful ecommerce store?
  • Are you providing ecommerce services?
We would like to write your story and share to the world.
Contact us