2023 Values Week Wrapped

[Luan]

Hey everyone!

We've reached the finish line at this year's Values Week event here in the Community and Star Program!

During the week Stars gathered together at various virtual events to celebrate the Star Program's core values. Each event was planned and hosted by us (the Stars), and the Community team together to represent the power of the values! 

As the week closes, I wanted to share here with you everything we’ve been up to and take a look back on some of the amazing experiences we’ve shared together as a team over the past few days. 

MONDAY:

On Monday, we had a talk from one of the Heart & Soul Spotify Ambassadors named Amelie.

We discussed Boundaries, but more specifically things like the benefits of time-based boundaries and how they could help us with:

- Better time management;

- Reducing risks of burning out / being over-stressed or anxious;

- Avoiding multitasking;

- Feeling more in control

Some of our key takeaways from this were:

- Identify when you’re the most productive 

- Plan your week on Monday morning 

- What are your most time-wasting activities?

(Actions that take resources, time, and energy away from another more important task)

This says a lot about how we can be more productive, but also have Responsibility and Respect for ourselves.

TUESDAY:

On Tuesday, we had another edition of one of our favorite meetups. Yeah, I'm talking about the legendary Streaming Party! 

This year, our party was nicely hosted by @Bittencourt, @AdamDamon, and @Soundofus. We listened to a playlist we created together, sharing some of our favorite songs. Anyone could add songs that likes, or that had any meaning to them, allowing us to discover new songs and chat a lot about them. It was definitely one of our favorite moments and we could see a lot of our core values at this event, after all, I think there aren't many things that are more Teamwork and Fun than a Collaborative Playlist, don't you think? Oh, and if you want to listen to our great playlist, HERE it is…

WEDNESDAY:

A step further on our Values Week, on Wednesday, we took a break on the virtual meetups, but the event hasn't stopped and we had the chance to get nostalgic… We had a fantastic blog, written by @Nikola, where some of our Community Legends (former Stars) and Spotify Legends (former Staff members) shared their lasting impressions about their moments on the program. 

We could visit the most magical memories of them here in the community and discover how the program has positively impacted their lives while being grateful for all their significant contributions here.

If you haven't read this yet, don't lose more time, check it out HERE.

THURSDAY:

Back to our meetups routine, we had a blast on another long-established and fun event in our Star Program: The Star Quiz. And with the Values Week background, this Star Quiz edition brought the big importance of Inclusion, after all, we have so many different cultures here in the Star Program… There are Stars from different countries, genres, ages, and much more. So, nothing is more important than celebrating our diversity by chatting and discovering much more about our customs and traditions with Respect and Responsibility. Our Moderator @Nikola  kicked off the quiz with trivia about Bulgaria, @Jose_M followed with trivia on Spain, @Soundofus followed with trivia on France, @Bittencourt presented information on Brazil and @Loneliest_Cabin closed it out with a prolific trivia on Scotland. We learned so much about cultural foods, music, geography, dancing, and more — but no one learned more than our first-place winner, @Keanu_C who scored the most trivia points. Have you considered an international career @Keanu_C? You’d be a great ambassador!

FRIDAY:

We are used to saying that good things run fast and it couldn't be different with the Values Week, because it was fantastic. To enjoy our last day, we gathered for a Coffee Chat (the tea team was also welcomed) and it was full of good laughs and joy! Our already traditional Coffee Chat, started by the lovely @Jose_M, was hosted this time around by another barista candidate - the irreplaceable @Melody! Teamwork was also very important here because we divided everyone into two teams in our game to create different movie plot lines. And both were amazing! I bet they could be nominated for the Oscars. Hello Academy, take a look at them…

2023 Values Week ended, but without a doubt, all the experiences we had here will remain in our memories. To our managers, @Melody, @IsleyP, @Loneliest_Cabin, and @OurPodfather, thank you all for making this possible! 

Also, I couldn't forget to thank all of our amazing moderators, who are always so kind and assistive every day with us and with each user to come here to the Community needing help. This is the true meaning of Support, Respect, Teamwork, and Responsibility... A special shout-out to @Nikola for the Wednesday blog, and @MihailY for helping with the development of the 2023 Values Week design identity!

To my folks, Stars, a huge thanks to all of you for participating in the events! And I couldn't forget to give a special one to @Jose_M, @Bittencourt, @Soundofus, @AdamDamon, and @MattSuda for getting together and actively participating in the preparations for some of the meetups.

Well, I could spend so much time here talking about the amazing experiences we had on our Values week but you probably already have an idea of how amazing it was just by reading about the events. Did you know you can join us and participate in the next edition? Yeah, read more about it HERE and join our constellation! 🌟

See you soon! #2023ValuesWeek