When the sound of an army of laptops banging shut mingles with the – to the layperson – unintelligible chatter of the techies and the room slowly falls silent as the lights go down and the projector comes on, it can only mean one thing... that’s right, it’s Office Day – and our techies are in their element! TAKE SEVENTEEN: ‘Everyday heroes’ was the theme of our 17th traditional get-together. The venue was Munich, and with more than a few dyedin-the-wool Bavarian natives in our ranks, our social program was a cultural and gastronomic tour de force.

For some of us – including me – this was our first time in the spotlight. I played a supporting role as “Ben Cartwright”, taking a quick virtual trip over to Hollywood and looking at examples of successful storytelling from our televisual forebears. AND IN THE LEADING ROLE... Our surprise guest, Dr. Christian Wenk – a Swiss everyday hero minus the cape – took center stage at the Office Day.

Even the most hardened of our techies gave their keyboards a break during the top athlete, musician and doctor's touching and rewarding presentation. In his speech, Dr. Wenk – who was left paraplegic after a tragic accident 17 years ago – shed new light on the concept of “success” in his speech. And while we’re on the subject of success... his speech was a massive one! He had the element of surprise on his side too, as none of the techies were expecting this special guest at our Office Day.

See Dr. Wenk's full speech

THE WHO’S WHO OF OUR EVERYDAY HEROES: The afternoon elevator pitch clearly demonstrated that there's a hero in all of us – it’s just that sometimes we don’t notice our little everyday victories. And that meeting new people can lead to new discoveries – as well as plenty of laughs. Alex Verres (Belgrade office) earned wild applause for his legendary introduction of the Berlin office. Particularly memorable was the moment when, with a mischievous smile, he generously declared Berlin to have attained the status of second-best office – implicitly putting his Belgrade colleagues in first place. All the offices praised the beer selections of their colleagues abroad enthusiastically, but it looked like the Munich faction’s beloved local brew was going to be left out – until someone mentioned Augustiner, prompting the CEO and nostalgic Münchner Christian to fall to his knees in homage to the golden nectar. T.G.I.A. – Thank God it’s Augustiner ;-)

We rounded off our homage to Augustiner with a welldeserved traditional Bavarian dinner at the Augustiner Bräustuben. HEARTY AND WHOLESOME: The meal opened with Obatzda cheese spread and freshly baked pretzels, followed by meat platters overflowing with roast chicken, pork knuckle, bratwurst, roast pork and Viennese sausage. In case that wasn’t enough, the meal was accompanied by bread dumplings and a cabbage and bacon salad, with apple strudel and chocolate cake for dessert. And it goes without saying that it was all washed down with freshly pulled beer!

Thank you to everyone who came and made our 17th Office Day truly legendary!