Last week, we celebrated the first edition of the Starware Week, a yearly get-together with the entire team and it was a blast! đ
We organised a week full of fun activities and also made room in the schedule for doing meaningful work together for our customers. For the first time ever after covid, we brought our (almost) entire global team together in our office.
On Monday, we kicked off the event at the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam with a press conference, where Marc & Roland shared the latest news about Starware and the future of the company. As our goal is to become known as the Supply Chain Party instead of the WMS Party, we know we are in for a great challenge. It was clear we need to be in the best shape of our lives for this, and what better way to do so than by hosting the Starware Olympics? đ After we handed out the Starware branded teams outfits, it was time to let the games begin!
We could only properly start after Jos Zandvliet and the Bijlmer Fanfare handled the official opening cermony and 25 years at the company jubilee, Sander lighted the Olympic flame.Â
Just after, All Seasons Sports had a full afternoon of sports lined up for us: volleyball, javelin throw, Frisbee challenge, and a “variathon” – which is a fancy name for a series of exhausting but fun games đ
We really hoped everyone still had some energy left, because we were heading straight after to the “Bosbaan” Rowing Course. Frank Houwelingfrom Okeanos welcomed us with some drinks at their cafĂ©, and we listened to the inspirational story from Olympic rower Mechiel Versluis who tried to teach us the basics of rowing in a very short time. Then it was time to hit the water in boats of 4. After the first training lap, we raced each other. Let’s just say that the major achievement was that no boats capsized, and we were super lucky with the weather!
We rounded up the first day with a delicious dinner feast (Hafla) at Neni Amsterdam.Â
On the second day, Tuesday, everyone met at the office for some actual work. Just before lunch, we welcomed Olivier van de Voort, Paralympic Medallist, who taught us a lot about healthy eating and perseverance. He also gave us an assignment: a supermarket safari to find the healthiest lunch!Â
After a nutritious meal -in which the teams collected enough oats to feed 50 people for a week đ- we started with the second tournament of the week: Foosball! Danny Kleinveld from Tafelvoetbalclinics brought an extra Foosball table, and we had the first matches of the competition during the afternoon.Â
We continued with the tournament on Wednesday. This time: Ping Pong! MJ Tafeltennis – Events gave us a clinic and set up the first matches with the teams.
Then on Thursday, we had the quarter, semi & finals for both Foosball and Ping Pong. To give our usual home cook -Frank- a break, Gasterij Vergeer provided a varied and tasty lunch and also arranged our breakfast for the next day.
We continued the party on Thursday at the Burgerhal in Gouda’s Stadhuis. Marianne Streef made sure we had all the ducks in a row for a perfect evening. The location was astonishing and paired with the nice food, a crazy music Bingo by the hand of our very own Remko Bom,  and the superb performance of Dreamcast, it made it a very special evening.
It was amazing to see the office at its full potential, full of cheerful people working together and having some fun. We were also surprised by the secret skills of some colleagues! From bouncing a giant “worm”, to playing ping-pong, singing, or having crazy music bingo skills.
Elvis himself also lifted our spirits with some cool songs, and it was great to see everyone joining in the party.
Thanks so much, everyone for yet another great event! It wouldn’t have been possible without you đ
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