On Thursday, 21st of July, we celebrated the first year of O4’s existence with an event-filled schedule. The unofficial part was preceded by a summary of everything important that had happened over the last 12 months. The summary was presented by Marta Moksa and Tomasz Woźniak, who spoke about how 3 desks in an open space became 40, how 1500 m2 became 2500 that is now a home for 54 companies and organisations. During those 12 months our residents drank more than 2000 litres of coffee and ate more than 200 kg of candy during our Sweet Monday regular events.
An important topic on the agenda was the announcement of O4’s plans for the future, in particular concerning the development of educational initiatives such as O4 Students and O4 Mentor. We found out also that O4 crossed the Atlantic ocean and is slowly sprouting in Boston, which is a temporary home for their special emissary – Weronika Szarafin. Her main mission is to acquire partners from the US business market that could support the initiative and also to create an on-site US version of O4. The fact that undoubtedly created the most excitement was the fact that O4 will also be present in the tallest building in the north of Poland – Olivia Star.
The next part of the event was a panel discussion. Among the invited guests were Michał Rybak (PSTP), Przemysław Sola (Business Link), Katarzyna Best – Kuczyńska (Starter), Mateusz Dębowski (who represented the students) and Paweł Tylingo (Quantum Lab). The moderator of the discussion was Marta Moksa, and the main topic was, of course, coworking, startups, and their development and future in both the Tri-City and the whole country.
The discussion ended the official part of the party. After that all attention focused on Jakub Szałek as he started the, announced, with a bang, O4RIADA (O4’s version of Family Feud), which was a general and specialist knowledge competition. Two teams participated; O4’s was represented with Natalia Hatalska as the team leader and “the rest of the world” was led by Przemek Sola. Both the host’s corny jokes (hailed as a successor of Karol Strasburger, host of Polish version of Family Feud) and the questions that the contestants had to answer made everyone smile. Everyone will undoubtedly remember such question as, “what kind of burger?” (with the highest scored answer: Stras-burger) or “what do we turn?” (with “cat by its tail” being the most popular answer).
It seemed that O4 was going to win, but at the last moment the scales of victory tipped in favor of “the rest of the world” contestants. The victory was rewarded with a sweet gift. It was a perfect moment for the phenomenal cake, complete with O4’s colors, to appear.
The rest of the event was marked by the grill, sun and music. There was a jazz band playing well known songs for the guests. The whole of O4’s area was covered with comfy poufs and deck chairs, but the already famous wooden boat, which will soon be transferred to the second floor, was also a popular area.
O4’s first birthday will certainly be remembered for a long time, and the proof is on our facebook page.
We are glad that we could celebrate this very important event with you. See you next year!