Tag: COMMUNITY

The revolution in the office market favours the best. This is how the past year at Olivia Centre can be summed up in a nutshell. Above-average commercialization results, broadening of the spectrum of industries that reside in Olivia and excellent attendance during events in Olivia Star’s event spaces.

The average annual rental result over the last 11 years has been exceeded twice. 30 thous. m.kw. The number of leased space in 2022 is a result that exceeds expectations in such a difficult market situation that affected the entire economy last year. In addition, Olivia managed to achieve a record in the number of contracts signed with new residents, of which there were 18 in total.

Such good commercialization results should be complemented by the renewal of lease agreements by existing residents, which confirms the high level of satisfaction with the offer available to the entire Olivia community and the level of services offered to tenants.

– The revolution on the office market, related to remote and hybrid work, is conducive to Olivia – emphasizes Maciej Kotarski, Director of the Commercialization Department at Olivia Centre. – Companies need fewer offices, but they want to have them in the best and most attractive locations so that employees want to come there. As a result, we have never had so many new resident entries as in 2022; That’s our record. Additionally, Companies limiting their lease space provide perfectly located and well-finished offices, which for many other companies is a unique opportunity to lease prestigious space with exceptional accompanying services offered by Olivia. This allows us to be very optimistic about the forecasts for 2023 in terms of the volume of leased space and the level of occupancy in all buildings, despite the ongoing trend of downsizing offices.

The new tenants include the largest and most innovative companies in the world, as well as start-ups that have been developing to become leaders in their segments over the years. In 2022, companies such as Capgemini, Nike, Graphcore, Softserve, Acaisoft, Sentillia B.V, Just Join IT, Polskie Sieci Elektroenergetyczne, Skills, Squad Poland and Itechart opened their offices in Olivia. Such a result is also a significant stimulus for the development of the entire region. Each of these investments is accompanied by the launch of recruitment processes, which at their peak last year exceeded even 2,000 positions.

The O4 coworking space, operating in four of Olivia’s buildings, can boast similarly high results. Its space in 2022 was leased for an even larger area than was available. Due to the huge interest in leasing, the coworking operator decided to lease the offices it occupies to its clients, temporarily moving its work to other spaces in Olivia.

– The presence of coworking in the business environment is of great value to the entire Olivia. Our tenants are often innovative companies that bring incredibly fresh energy to the O4 community, but also implement creative and extremely interesting projects. These are both smaller enterprises and large corporations that are looking for space to implement short- or long-term projects – says Marta Moksa, director of O4 coworking. The situation in our offices means that we are also growing, as a result of which we are planning to take over more offices that we will be able to offer in the form of coworking in 2023.

Olivia is attracted not only by the class of offices and the level of service provided, but also by additional offers, which have been developed for years in this largest business center in Poland. Among the most acclaimed offers is the exotic Olivia Garden, which in 2022 won the prestigious European Property Awards, known as the architectural Oscar. Equally popular are the top floors of Olivia Star, where there is an observation deck at a height of 130 meters above the ground, and restaurants, run by Paco Perez, winner of the 5***** prestigious Michelin culinary guide on the 33rd floor of this building. This year can also be considered successful for the event and conference center on the 34th floor of Olivia. Jazz, rock and theatre concerts were held in its spaces, and on the stage located 150 meters above the ground, such stars as Krystyna Janda, Andrzej Grabowski, Krzysztof Zalewski, Daria Zawiałow, Wojciech Mazolewski, Leszek Możdżer and Grzegorz Markowski performed. And on New Year’s Eve, former Genesis singer Ray Wilson closed the year 2022 with a concert.

Olivia Centre in Gdańsk is the largest and most modern office and business center in the Tri-City agglomeration. Its target size will significantly exceed 200,000 sq m, and already amounts to 175,000 sq m, which has made Olivia Centre the largest office project in Poland. Olivia’s largest residents include Airhelp, Amazon, Arrow, Bayer, Deloitte, Energa, EPAM, Fujifilm, Nordea, PwC, Ricoh, Sii, Staples, ThyssenKrupp.

At the same time, Olivia Centre is much more than buildings. Several hundred business, educational, cultural and sports events take place here throughout the year. A unique combination of services and amenities for tenants and guests has been created in the office center, which consists of eight restaurants, 4 cafes, a professional two-storey fitness center, a nursery and kindergarten for 100 children, a primary school, a high school, an IT academy, a medical center, a dentist’s office, a pharmacy, 5 bank customer service points and 5 conference centers, O4 – one of the largest coworking spaces in Poland, but at the same time a vast patio filled with vegetation, fountains and places to relax. In the spring of 2021. Olivia Centre has been subjected to the most restrictive analysis conducted by experts from the International Well Building Institute (IWBI) in New York. The safety of building users was checked, as well as solutions improving the quality of life in the business centre, also in the context of the ongoing pandemic. Olivia received the maximum score of 25 out of 25 points. It achieved this result in 22 basic categories and in 3 new ones related to the innovations implemented in its area. This is the first such result in the world, which confirms that Gdańsk’s buildings are among the world’s top business leaders, especially since the 2022 re-categorization confirmed the result obtained a year earlier. Other OBC buildings receive high marks from BREEAM ecological certification from excellent to very good.

In July 2019, on the 32nd, 33rd and 34th floor of Olivia Star, the highest building in northern Polish, a project was launched, constituting a unique, additional offer attracting guests from all over the world to Olivia Centre. On the 32nd floor, a public viewing level has been opened, allowing a 360-degree view. for the whole Tri-City. It offers not only a stunning panorama of the Bay of Gdańsk, the Tri-City Landscape Park and the Gdynia cliff coast, but also originally designed interiors, catering and recreational facilities. On the 33rd floor of the building there are two prestigious restaurants: Arco and Treinta y Tres, run by Paco Pérez, one of the most successful chefs in the world. On the 34th floor, at a height of nearly 160 meters above the ground, a multifunctional conference center located the highest in Poland has been created.

Located on the ground floor of Olivia Star, the exotic Olivia Garden is a green enclave in the heart of the Olivia Centre. The garden offers an area of 740 m2 with a height of 9 m, with a mezzanine of more than 100^m2 . The garden was planted with 4,000 plants representing more than 150 species. In 2021 won an award in the CIJ Awards Poland competition, in the Best Interior/Exterior Design category, and in 2022 the European Property Award. The aim of the project was to create a space that would allow you to relax, calm down and rebuild your inner harmony, which is extremely pleasant among such a large number of delightful plants reaching up to 11 meters in height. Olivia Garden’s space complemented the concept of a modern centre open to employees and residents of the Tri-City, where the needs of stakeholders are treated as a priority.

Olivia offers over 1600 parking spaces, a number of electric car charging points, points for storing and charging electric scooters, several hundred bicycle racks and large changing rooms with showers for cyclists in each of the 8 buildings.

Are you recruiting or planning to hire employees in the near future? Take advantage of the latest recruitment trends and take part in Recruitment Speed Dating instead of traditional recruitment. March 29, 2023 O4 Coworking organizes the fifth edition of this unique project for employers from Olivia Centre.

What is Recruitment Speed Dating?

Speed dating, which aims to connect two people with each other, is increasingly being used in business. They have also become an effective form of recruitment in various industries. Around the world, as well as in Poland, such meetings are organized to familiarize employers with job seekers. Giants such as Microsoft, Apple, Google, Airbnb take part in them.

O4 Coworking has already organized 4 editions of recruitment dates and has proof that it works!

– We are after four editions and we already know that Speed Dating Recruitment has a chance to shorten the distance between the employee and the employer, give the job advertisement a human face, and warm up the image of large and small organizations. At the same time, it allows people with little professional experience to show themselves more fully than through a piece of paper, to experience, a little relaxed and cheerful, the first job interviews and build their first business relationships. – says Michalia Domoń, PR & Marketing Manager at O4 Coworking. –For the employer, it is also a considerable time saver and an opportunity to get to know the candidate market. Speed dating recruitment is an effective form of hiring. All of our speed dating editions account for 60% of conversations that end in employment.

Participation in Speed Dating is an opportunity for companies and universities to test a new solution, but also to appear in the eyes of potential candidates as a modern place using market tools that are currently in trend.

O4 Coworking is the matchmaker of this success, but this project would not have been successful if there were no universities with us that want to support their students and help them find their way in the job market. This is the second time that WSB University has joined the project.

For whom?

We would like to invite employers from Olivia Centre who are looking for young, ambitious and cooperative juniors, this time among students in their final years at the Faculty of Social and Humanities (Philology ) and the Faculty of Business (Management and Finance and Accounting) of the WSB University in Gdańsk.

Who are the candidates?

Students, students of the last year of undergraduate and graduate studies at the Faculty of Social and Humanities – Philology at the WSB University in Gdańsk. These are people who have a good command of foreign languages and cultures of the world, are ready for challenges and changes, as well as open-minded, creative and creative.

Students, students of the last year of undergraduate and graduate studies at the Faculty of Business – Management and Finance and Accounting of the WSB University in Gdańsk. They can assess financial risks and manage an investment portfolio. Prepare financial analyses for management decisions. Apply international financial reporting standards. They are open to new challenges that require deepening their knowledge and applying it in practice, and are ready to work both independently and in a team.

They trusted O4 Coworking:

Acaisoft, Amazon, AMS, Arrow Electronics, Bayer Sp. z o.o., Develocraft, FUJIFILM Europe, infoShare Academy, Invest in Pomerania, @Lyreco Group Polska, @Manpowergroup , Nørd HR, Nordea, Olivia Centre, PKO Bank Polish, PredictX, Randstad, Ricoh Europe, Santander, Sawa Logistics Sp. z o.o., SoftServe, Sii Poland, TELUS International, Thyssenkrupp, Winning Moves Polska, Xceedance Poland, ZR Trade GmbH.

We are waiting for applications for the fifth edition!

Speed Dating Recruitment | O4 Coworking, Olivia Four | 29 March, 14:00-16:30

Join us and find unique, capable, competent, and job-ready candidates for your company.

Do you have any questions? Write to:
martyna.czarnobaj@oliviacentre.com

Testimonials

A great event – our company has gained as many as two employees. The form of the meeting allows you to get to know the candidates and representatives of other companies taking part in speeddating. An incredibly effective form of establishing contacts and developing the company. Tomasz Cylwik from ZR Trade

I am very happy that we were able to join the event. It is also a very interesting experience for us as employers. It is great to observe young people who are determined to gain their first professional experience. In such a short time, they are able to build a good impression, make people interested in themselves and their competences. The speed dating itself was organized in a professional way, and the pizza at the end was a great culmination of a busy afternoon.

Alicja Sawicka

from Sii Poland

That’s great! I wish I had the opportunity to do so 14 years ago, when I was entering the job market. 6 minutes multiplied by the number of companies gives a huge dose of information about the market, which sooner or later will turn into a full-time job, and thus the development of each participant.

Kamil Parafiniuk

from Develocraft

The third edition of the Olivia Prize competition is behind us. Awards for projects carried out by the Residents of Poland’s largest mixed-use centre were awarded in the following categories: Impact, Eco, Business and Pro Bono. The partner of the Olivia Eco award is the United Nations Global Compact Network Poland.

As many as 26 projects were submitted to this year’s edition of the competition. Most of them were related to the Olivia Business category, the aim of which is to distinguish concepts and implementations with the greatest business potential, characterized by innovation and responding to real market demand. Many initiatives were submitted in the Pro Bono category, related to the pro-social and charitable initiatives of Olivia Residents. In the current geopolitical situation, most of them were related to the involvement of business in helping the victims of the Russian attack on Ukraine. As in the previous year, initiatives in the field of ecology were also well represented. The partner of the award,
United Nations Global Compact Network Poland
, is an organization working for human rights, the environment and promoting social goals of doing business. The distinction in the Olivia Impact category is awarded to the company with the greatest impact in the area of business, social and innovation.

OLIVIA IMPACT

The award in this most important category for 2022 went to
Infoshare
– the creators of one of the largest conferences in the IT industry in Europe. The event creates a unique space for exchanging knowledge, establishing business contacts and attracting investors. At the same time, Infoshare is much more than a conference. After 17 years of operation, it is a thriving organization combining the world of business, modern technologies and marketing. Infoshare is also an academy for training programmers and Infoshare Roadshow – a series of meetings during which Pomerania is promoted in southern Poland as a friendly place for work and entrepreneurship development. Infoshare has become not only a business brand, but also a platform promoting the Pomeranian region beyond its borders as an area of modern, smart specializations.

“Part of our vision is to build a large community of people associated with the world of technology ,” says Grzegorz Borowski, CEO of Infoshare. – We strive to achieve it through various projects, not only nationwide, but also international. Most of them are carried out in Gdansk, in our office in Olivia Centre. That is why I am very happy about this award as an expression of appreciation for our contribution to the development of the Olivia community, as well as the promotion of the Tri-City and the Pomerania region.

OLIVIA BUSINESS

The statuette in the Olivia Business 2022 category went to the company Speeron Polska sp. z o.o. for the development of the Guest Portal application for hotel guests. It integrates at the level of smartphones, TVs or tablets all the services that hotel guests need during their stay in any facility in the world. The application is characterized by flexibility and the ability to adapt it not only to the selected hotel chain, but also to each facility separately, which multiplies its market potential. From there, it is possible to order standard services such as ordering meals to the room and booking standard hotel services, but also extended options such as concierge and reporting defects, checking the air quality in the vicinity of the hotel or the temperature of the water in the hotel pool. The app has already been bought by luxury hotels such as Bank Hotel and Berns Hotel in Stockholm, as well as the Swedish group Pite Havsbad, which offers hotel and campsite stays in Sweden.

– Thank you very much for this special distinction and appreciation of the continuous work of our programmers. We assure you that we will not rest on our laurels and will continue to develop our projects! The Olivia Prize in the Business category is a fantastic distinction for us, especially since we have competed in this category with the largest corporations and projects run by large teams of employees. This gives us wings and we are convinced that it will allow us to conquer new markets and develop this project – said Aleksandra Kozakiewicz from Speeron Polska shortly after receiving the award.

The distinction in the Olivia Business category went to Zaplify, a company offering a platform for automated sales support for companies which, due to their early stage of development, cannot afford to employ a group of salespeople and sales representatives. The platform selects a group of potential customers on social networks, consumer platforms and available databases.

OLIVIA ECO

The award in the Olivia Eco category went to SII for the EVAA project – Ecological Vertical Agriculture Assistant – a concept that uses artificial intelligence to solve the problem of hunger in the world. Within it, plants develop without the use of soil, and all the substances they need to develop come from water and are dosed by an algorithm responsible for monitoring the proper development of the plant. The project has already been noticed around the world. It has won an award in the international Intel Innovate FPGA competition for an attempt to technologically solve the problem of world hunger and environmental threats, and the French Research TAX Credit accreditation for the innovation of the R&D project.

Distinctions in the Olivia Eco category went to ZR Trade and Nowy Styl. The first one was awarded for the project of distributing fully functional toys with damaged packaging to children in need. Due to the defect, the toys were destined to be destroyed. Within 4 days, the company’s employees established cooperation with organizations that collected and donated toys to children in need. In this way, they gave a second life to objects that would otherwise be waste and would be disposed of. It is worth mentioning that ZR Trade has already been a winner in the Olivia Eco category for 2021, which confirms that ecology is permanently inscribed in the company’s DNA.

The second award in this category went to Nowy Styl, a Polish leader in the production of office furniture , for creating an eco-design management system. The system allows for planning the life cycle of furniture in the spirit of the circular economy and designing it in such a way that it is possible to fully recycle it later, the time of its use allows for many years of use (also by providing components that allow for the repair and replacement of worn parts without the need to dispose of the furniture due to a small defect), effective management of water and energy consumption needed for production and the use of recycling in furniture production.

OLIVIA PRO BONO

The award in the Olivia Pro Bono category went to Bayer GBS Gdańsk for the Border Angels, UA support hotline project. Within just a few days of the outbreak of the war, Bayer employees around the world organized themselves from the bottom up, creating a list of so-called “Bayer Workers”. shelters, i.e. flats or rooms (often in their private homes), which they were ready to make available to their colleagues from Ukraine. A group of Border Angels was also formed, consisting mainly of field workers, whose task was to pick up Ukrainian workers from the border and transport them to safe places. They developed their own telephone support coordination centre in the form of the UA Support Hotline, which provided 24/7 logistical, legal and psychological support and helped them find shelter after crossing Ukraine’s borders with Poland, Moldova, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia. The result of the work of the entire group was the provision of care and support for over 550 people, 200 beds, which were used by a total of 430 people. 130 employees of the Gdańsk branch of Bayer were involved in the project.

– Thank you very much for the award. I receive them on behalf of more than a hundred Bayer employees – not only from Gdańsk. We showed what is in our hearts, but also specific skills – organizational, technological, etc. At the same time, each of us would prefer not to receive this award. We live in the hope that this war will end soon – says Remigiusz Wojciechowski, Head of Bayer GBS Gdańsk.

In this category, honorable mentions went to thyssenkrupp, the Talent Development Center and the Olivia Choir. All the awarded projects were also related to the assistance provided by these entities for refugees and those affected by Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

“Corporate social responsibility is an area that is often under-noticed,” said Maciej Grabski , investor of Olivia Centre, during the Olivia Prize 2022 closing gala. The past year was dominated by the events in Ukraine, which showed how much good energy there is in us – private individuals, entrepreneurs, social activists. Everything we’ve seen this year has been awe-inspiring and highly appreciative. Much has been said about the help provided by private individuals who have taken in refugees seeking refuge from war. However, the projects that have been submitted reflect the scale of business support. Companies – from the smallest to multinational corporations – and the people who work in them have done something absolutely exceptional, for which we should be thankful. The Olivia Prize is an initiative in which we have the opportunity to thank for the scale of the contribution of these entities to doing good – added Maciej Grabski.

The evening was enriched by a meeting with a special guest , Marek Wikiera , a mentor, ultramarathon runner, extreme sports enthusiast, who was one of 47 people in the world and the first Pole to finish the 4 Deserts marathon, placed by Time magazine on the 6th place, among the 10 most endurance-demanding human challenges. Marek Wikiera emphasized the importance of small steps that every person striving for a goal must take in order to be able to achieve goals and dreams.

“The analysis of the applications for the jury was fascinating ,” Marta Moksa, the chairwoman of the Olivia Prize jury, summed up this year’s edition of the competition. Applications from the smallest companies as well as the largest corporations show the true spirit of Olivia Centre. Initiatives created by start-ups and huge programs run by teams of hundreds or even thousands of people take part in one competition. Personally, I am very happy about the Olivia Prize, because I am convinced that thanks to this competition we have a chance to learn about many valuable initiatives that are undertaken every year in Olivia. I am convinced that thanks to these projects we can also inspire and motivate each other.