Thinking about the most appropriate way to celebrate the 20th anniversary of our company, the planning team concluded that it had to be a weekend trip to our colleagues in Lisbon. A few weeks later, off we went.

We split into three groups, with the first one arriving earlier to take care of the last preparations and surprise the others with a personalized letter, binder|consulting’s latest merchandise and the weekend’s schedule in their rooms. The early arrivers spent their first evening in Lisbon exploring the surroundings and enjoying all kinds of typical Portuguese tapas. The late arriving group however, had to settle for Portuguese wine at the hotel bar (poor them).

Although the main goal of the trip was to celebrate the 20th anniversary of binder|consulting, we also used it to introduce and welcome our latest two team members (also called managing partners ) – Ralph and Andreas. A workshop involving all employees was organized to talk about what makes the company great, what we want to keep and what we want to change. We made plans for the future – together.

Mentally exhausted, we gathered our strengths and dressed-up to begin celebrations. First step was a unique gala dinner with delicious food and Portuguese wines. Most of us struggled to finish their dessert. Luckily, a brave person amongst us sacrificed its bikini figure to finish all the chocolate cake.

Everyone was tired, but still in the mood for more adventures. So we went on to explore the city center’s nightlife. The sun might have already been up again when everyone found their way back to their beds – totally worth it!

On Saturday, we finally had the chance to experience the city in daylight, as we had organized an interactive treasure hunt. We were split into groups of 4 to 6 people and made our way through town solving riddles and tasks whose answers were found in the city’s buildings and history. To gain extra points we had to take pictures of us performing some dares, such as acting our favorite movie scene, killing an ancient animal or fishing in one of Lisbon’s many fountains. Proof in photos…

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The night was spent again indulging in the best wine and food Lisbon had to offer. The next morning some of us had to skip breakfast and we had yet to face another riddle. One colleague couldn’t find his jacket anymore, but instead someone else’s jacket was laying in his room: same style, perfect fit, just a different jacket. The obvious answer is that he took someone else´s jacket from the club right? No. He swears that he didn’t take the jacket to the club (we kinda believe him), so someone must have been into his room, harmlessly swapped the jackets and left… The mystery remains unsolved until this day and we are all now living in fear of fashionista hotel room ghosts.

Besides the mystery jacket, we all made it home safely and soundly on Sunday evening. And are now already looking forward to the next big company anniversary – only 5 more years to go .