Speech Blog

The Wings for Life World Run is a charity event on a world wide scale. On one same day, the world run takes place at event locations across the globe. Everyone starts at the exact same moment. All entry fees and all donations raised through fundraising campaigns go directly to life-changing spinal cord research projects and clinical trials at renowned universities and institutes worldwide.

On May 5^th several employees of Speech Processing Solutions from different regions ran during the world run to support the cause and to have a good time together.

 

Perfect Team-Building Activity

Signing your employees up for a run is the perfect team-building activity, offering benefits to all parties involved. As a company you contribute to a charity event and organize an activity for your employees, and the employees get to do something different, fun and playful while being committed to the company team spirit. Most importantly, the charity event will also be profiting from the donations and awareness the event offers.

 

The Team Players’ Impressions

Erik A. :“I’m not the running type, but when I received the e-mail for Speech Processing Solutions asking if I wanted to participate in a run where 100% of the donations were for research, I didn’t doubt it for a second. Together with the participants of my team, we went out to train a few times. I really enjoyed the team spirit we felt when encouraging and supporting each other. It is really about participating and not the results. It’s about the donations and the quality time we all spent together. I would definitely do it again.”

 

Katharina L. :“Rain and wind from everywhere, our CEO lent me his second raincoat half way through the race – great team spirit!

 

Thomas B. :”Woke up Sunday morning: what weather would one expect for a team run? Sunny, blue sky…. No, nothing like that! Instead heavy rain, 4 degrees Celsius, almost snowing. And the wind was getting stronger and stronger. I decided to send an email to all Vienna participants to state that they should only participate if they feel they can cope with this situation – and almost all showed up (one participant participated with a ski-cap… and to be honest – he was right). We participated in the app run. Othmar, one of the SPS employees, had marked the running track with sprayed on direction signs so that nobody could get lost. Big thanks!  Since I was using my smartphone constantly to listen to the web-radio of Wings for Life and was constantly checking the screen, my smartphone lost battery power very fast…. suddenly only 4% was left! So I had to run back to my car, recharged the smartphone a little bit – and tried to escape the approaching “catcher car” for the last meters. My learning: power management of your smartphone is nowadays even more important than conditions and running equipment. It was a great team effort, top results (e.g. Wil within the best 2500 runners globally!), and our team came within the top 1/3 globally!

In Summary: I’m proud of the SPS Team ….nothing can scare them …we act to win! Many thanks to those who have organized the running event – it was literally really “cool”.”

 

 

Mikaël G.:“I’m a runner. I love to run and am used to participating in marathons and runs. I really like the positive vibes we feel during these kind of events, but when it’s for a good cause, for charity, it’s ten times the feeling. It’s not really about the competition anymore, but it’s all about the cause and helping others as much as we can.”

 

Evelyn G.: I’m not really the sporty type… Besides doing a bit of hiking and occasional sprints to catch my train, I’ve never participated in any kind of run before. And even now, I wouldn’t have done it: If I wouldn’t have been asked to join with the offer to walk (instead of running) and if it wasn’t for a good cause. I officially walked for the first time during our training sessions to scout out the route for the app run. To my surprise, I absolutely enjoyed being outside, breathing fresh air, chatting with colleagues. Soon I realized that the reason why I hadn’t run until now was not because I felt that I’m not a sporty person, but because I felt uncomfortable to run with others and was afraid that I’m too slow or that my running style might look funny. It therefore makes me even more proud that I decided to run on race day. Okay, to be honest, it was a mix of running and walking. But it doesn’t diminish the fact that I overcame my fears. In addition, I managed to get much further than my initial goal! And yes, I got lost en-route, and that’s typically me. But rumor has it that I wasn’t the only one who got lost… In the beginning, I just wanted to run for a good cause, but in the end – although this sounds a bit like a cliché – I very much benefited from it myself. I’m glad and grateful that I was invited to join the Wings for Life run and hope that I’ll carry this positive feeling with me for a long time.”

 

Overall a Great Success

Whether it is about supporting a good cause, spending quality time with colleagues, achieving a personal goal or just participating in a sporting event. We can all agree on the fact that a charity run brings people closer and motivates them.

 

  

 

So why not think about participating in other causes throughout the year? Not only sporting events, but all kinds of events where all employees can participate.

Speech Processing Solutions will surely be on the look out for new activities for our teams to join!