Reflection on NetRom’s relationship event

As you may already know, this year we celebrated a special milestone: the 25th anniversary of NetRom! We celebrated this special moment with a relationship event, which took place on March 21. Together with about 250 partners, we reflected on a quarter century of collaborations, special projects, and humorous anecdotes. As mentioned often in this blog, many of our clients have been with us for a large part of those 25 years. We have experienced a great deal together and, following the relationship event, I am convinced that there is much more to come.

I look back on a very successful afternoon and evening among gigantic locomotives at the Railway Museum in Utrecht. It was a day focused on inspiration, networking, and conviviality, just as we had envisioned.

The success more than made up for the nerve-wracking preparations. Anyone who has ever organized such a large event knows it is a logistical challenge and an emotional rollercoaster, demanding a lot of time and energy from the entire team. A behind-the-scenes look: preparations took over four months, with at least 30 meetings held with the day’s chairperson, speakers, caterers, venue staff, decorators, and music and video teams. We spent hours poring over photos and film material from the past 25 years, creating a beautiful visual trip down memory lane that we displayed. At least 15 clients were hands-on involved in the day, with our commercial director Ivan personally visiting some clients to make recordings. And even on the morning of the event, we were still hastily searching for wine bags in a supermarket.

Meanwhile, nightmarish scenarios occasionally played out in my head in the run-up to the day. During such an important anniversary event, of course, nothing can go wrong. What if it does? What if many people fail to show up? Fortunately, the reality was much more positive. Guests arrived in large numbers, the no-show was negligible, and at 10:15 PM the lights went out and we were able to toast and reflect on a successful day with a small group. It was a special moment with a close-knit, involved NetRom’s team of employees who all pulled together for this event. At such times, I truly feel privileged.

Where we usually try to bridge the distance with visits to our campus in Craiova and foster collaborations, we did so during the relationship event on Dutch soil in a special way. Day chairperson Lars Sørensen created an atmosphere of connection by having people look each other in the eyes. It might have been a bit uncomfortable, but it helped lower barriers to talking to each other, the main goal of the day. Top speaker and brain researcher Erik Scherder continued this theme and took it up a notch. He completely captivated the room and even got all 250 attendees to squat and listen to part of his talk from that position.

We managed to maintain the pleasant and informal atmosphere throughout the day and evening. I find this characteristic of how we at NetRom collaborate with our clients and partners. The level of commitment from the attendees underscores our core values: continuity and long-term collaboration. It is also worth mentioning the involvement of our investors. They came specially from London and stayed the entire afternoon and evening to talk and network with our employees and other relationships.

Personally I also talked a great deal with people, about all sorts of things. The many conversations brought certain issues into mind, gave a new impulse to existing collaborations, and provided inspiration for new projects. Perhaps the most important conclusion I would like to attach to our 25-year anniversary is the belief that a focus on long-term collaboration with employees, clients, shareholders, and suppliers proves to work.

Here’s to the next 25 years!

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