Spending a day with the team is always nice. There is completely different dynamics on real face to face meetings no matter how much we have been doing the remote meetings. It's more natural which makes everybody more comfortable to talk even the tough matters together.
We have recognized this s long time ago and while we remain remote first company we do encourage the hybrid model. We try to get people to the office on their own will instead of forcing them there like many companies are doing nowadays. As a management team we need to show an example. And we have had many of our meetings at the office whenever possible. At least for the majority of the team.
But those meetings are usually shorter ones and there is a bigger difference on these full day gatherings. On the shorter ones, no matter how focused there is always the feeling that we just got started and then we already have to run to the next meeting. There just is so much to discuss.
And having these two day events is even better as when we get to spend dome off-duty time together (although the discussions from the day might still go on during the evenings) it gives us great time to get to know eachother better.