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COSMO CONSULT Annual Conference 2018

Björn Lorenz07/06/2018

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We are family - 479 COSMOnauts break world record in raft singing

Once a year, COSMO CONSULT invites employees from all over the world to Berlin for its annual conference. The 2018 conference took place on 15 June: around 600 COSMOnauts from 12 European and Latin American countries accepted the invitation and came to Berlin. A historically symbolic location was chosen as the venue: the Funkhaus in Oberschöneweide, a former broadcasting center of the old GDR. Today, the huge concrete brick building from the 50s is home to several studios and is a popular venue with its own waterfront promenade along Berlin’s Spree river. The perfect place to announce to the world that a new record had been set. But more on that later.

A look inside the company

After the on-boarding phase of the event, the COSMOnauts kicked off the day with a big brunch before the board took the stage. In contrast to previous years, the welcoming speech was rather brief, because there were different stars shining that morning: This time the stars were the various teams of the "OneCOSMO" project that for months have been supporting the transformation of COSMO CONSULT into an agile, digital consulting company with ideas and strategies. First, COSMO CONSULT Director Gerrit Schiller introduced the individual teams, and then they reported on their projects. The compact overview of the topics and results of the working groups that deal with issues such as customer journey, workforce strategy, and knowledge and content management was new information to many of the COSMOnauts.

We are the Champions

After the comprehensive update on the company, the focus was on the "Challenge of the Day". Last year the teams competed fiercely in the fields of sports and creativity, this time it was about one big thing: a world record. The idea was to master three challenges:

build a raft that would accommodate at least 500 COSMOnauts
make sure that no one capsizes it, and
sing through the old disco hit "We are family" by Sister Sledge.

The logistical problem of getting such an enormous raft into the water was handled creatively: by breaking down the task into many small parts - just like you do in software development - and completing them in teams of seven. The COSMOnauts built a total 63 rafts consisting of a basis, planks, tires and ropes that were then tied together out on the Spree. Even the singing went really well after initial reservations were overcome. And when Uwe Bergmann, CEO of the COSMO CONSULT group, held up the official document of the world record as certified by the institute, Rekord-Institut für Deutschland (RID), there was no holding back the COSMOnauts on the raft: it is amazing that nobody went overboard at that moment. Uwe Bergmann said afterwards, “Working together in small teams without losing sight of the big picture was what we had to accomplish to master this year's challenge. When we stood together on the raft and sang and in the end actually got the world record - that was a great moment for me as well”.

World-record party in a hip part of Berlin

The successful world record and the OneCOSMO projects were the main topics for conversation at the party in the evening. This time it took place in the Festsaal in Kreuzberg, a hip, very urban, club with a surprisingly beautiful garden, which can only really be appreciated when it is illuminated at night. People chilled outside, while the dance floor heated up inside. "We have seen strong growth in recent years. To take full advantage of the synergy effects in the company, it is important that we all pull together and support each other. Joint events promote team spirit and, to a degree, establish our identity. The annual conference is therefore very important to us," said Klaus Aschauer, COSMO CONSULT Group Director. The exciting day lasted deep into the night, leaving people hungry for more. Let's see what world record is broken next year.