And the whole thing happened twice: Approx. 150 guests are to be welcomed to an official ceremony. The ceremony should be purposefully designed to be reserved. With the employees - at Central in Cologne, these are more than 1,000 people - they plan to celebrate separately and more unconventionally.
The ceremony takes place in the small hall of the Cologne Gürzenich. Top-class speakers from politics and economy and the two outstanding musicians Robert Bartha, composer and organist, and Racine, the queen of violine, characterize the event. Otherwise one remains modest.
A location of a different size is needed for the employee party. And it needs a different approach to the event - a new sense of community within the company. Since the cohesion among Central's employees is still strong, it quickly becomes clear to us that they have to be integrated into the organisation. We developed the "we" concept: for three quarters of a year we held workshops with the Centralists. They are welcome to design their own party - of course always expertly coached by facts and fiction. In this way we increase the feeling of appreciation and the emotional attachment to the celebration and the company. It is not the head office that determines how the employee party is to look like - it is the employees themselves.
The result of operation "We": Well-dosed speeches, Bernd Stromberg alias Christoph Maria Herbst speaks the keynote - the content is the result of a workshop. The moderator is Birte Karalus, actively supported by an employee of Central. Star chef Frank Rosin proves that he can not only cook first-class meals, but is also very entertaining. Some employees perform a self-choreographed dance and then everyone sings "Days like these" together in a specially rewritten Central version. The atmosphere is anything but bad, especially when the Cologne Local Heroes Brings finally perform. The latter, by the way, is a surprise gift from the management to their people.
