The building had been dressed specially for the event. The courtyard was like a scene from The Prisoner, with clouds of huge, floating white globes, the ground studded with dozens of paper lanterns illuminated by candles. The bar/dining area was all in white with sand on the floor and had a kind of bond villain hideout vibe. The floor which we used for most of the speeches and presentations had been entirely carpeted with real grass.  (Large quantities of grass being just what you expect in Amsterdam.)

On Wednesday last week, everyone from Wieden + Kennedy London got on a plane to meet up with everyone from the Amsterdam office for two days of talk, games, events and, er, booze to celebrate and commemmorate the 25th anniversary of the founding of the agency. It’ll take me at least a couple of posts to cover this, so bear with me.

We had our own personalised check-in counter at Heathrow. Just the thing for a bunch of wanderers and stragglers. Danny Wallace in ‘Brits on tour’ mode, below:

Main venue for the two days was W+K Amsterdam’s new building, which is still empty and yet to be fitted out. Our lot don’t move in permanently for a few months. This meant we could fit it out specially for founders’ day.

Starting point was to review the long, strange trip of the last 25 years of Wieden + Kennedy. Founder Dan Wieden, together with Dave Luhr and John Jay, said a few words and answered questions about how it’s going so far. Example:

Q: Dan, what kept you going for 25 years?

A: Scotch, for most of it.