The sports hall of the Friendship Sports Centre during a corporate sports day

Three days, three sizes

DHL, 17 May 2025. For the 50th anniversary of DHL Express in the Netherlands all staff were invited to the Friendship Sports Centre. The site was split in two: a large food court in front of the clubhouse for the welcome and the closing party, and a sports area where small teams played mini-games, each built around beating a high score. Twenty-four stations, from wheelchair basketball with a Paralympic champion to a biathlon with laser rifles on the athletics track, a baseball cage with a speed gun, sumo suits, curling, footpool, archery and an e-sports arena with race seats. Activation ran from 14:00 to 16:00. Our crew that day: 45 people, two indoor and outdoor event managers and one leaderboard per station.

Toyota, 1 June 2025. The Onbeperkte Sportdag is Toyota's day for children with a disability and their families: more than twenty sports to try, from handbike and framerunner to boccia, judo and wheelchair tennis, with clinics by Toyota's Olympic and Paralympic ambassadors. Toyota's event agency produced the day; we built and ran the sports programme, as we had done for the first edition on 6 October 2024. Around a thousand people were on site.

Spieren voor Spieren, 7 September 2025. A sports day for children and young people with a muscle disease: 130 families with 531 participants in total, 20 top-sport ambassadors and more than 100 guests of the foundation. The 2026 edition took place on 30 August.

Toyota's Onbeperkte Sportdag 2025 at the Friendship Sports Centre

What scale changes

• Stations, not a schedule. Above 300 people a timetable breaks. Give every station a leaderboard and let people roam; the high score is the programme.

• One crew member per 30 to 40 guests. For DHL that meant 45 people, each briefed on one station, in one colour shirt, with a dark trouser dress code so the crew is recognisable.

• Two zones. Keep eating and sport apart. The food court in front of the clubhouse handled arrival, drinks and the closing party while the pitches stayed free for play.

• A rain plan that is already built. The sports hall takes the indoor arena (basketball, sitting volleyball, darts, table tennis, e-sports); the outdoor arena, the Cruyff Court and the athletics track take the rest. If it rains, the outdoor stations compress into the hall.

• Arrival logistics. For 1,500 people in Amsterdam-Noord we send a parking map of the neighbourhood, a public transport route via bus 37 and a request to car-pool; coaches get a drop-off point.

• Athletes as trainers. A clinic from someone who has played a Paralympic final changes how adults behave at a station. Book them early.

• Materials from specialists. Archery tag, sumo suits, curling lanes, speed guns and leaderboards came from rental partners we have used for years; the printed site map came from our own studio.

Winning team with the cup

What the site gives you

The Friendship Sports Centre is the only sports centre in the Netherlands built specifically for children with a disability, and that is exactly why it works for big corporate days. The complex has an artificial turf pitch, a grass pitch, an athletics track, a Cruyff Court, a sports hall, a dojo, fitness and a pool, plus a 200-seat conference hall and a kitchen that serves buffets from breakfast to dinner. Every booking supports Only Friends, the club of 900 children that lives here. For DHL that was part of the brief: a sports day with impact for colleagues and for a good cause.

Football training at Only Friends

Questions we always get

• How long? Two hours of active play is the sweet spot for a workforce that did not come in sports gear. Add an hour for arrival and an hour for the party.

• What about people who do not want to play? Darts, cornhole, footpool and the e-sports arena are built for them. The ratio of active to passive stations matters.

• Can it be smaller? Yes. Gemeente Amsterdam did it with 210 people on 3 July 2025 and with 120 on 12 May 2026, with clinics at fixed start times and a sign language workshop in between.

• Can it be elsewhere? Yes. We have built sports days at NH conference hotels and in Rotterdam, but Amsterdam-Noord is where the site, the trainers and the story come together.

Sources

• Production book DHL Sportdag 2025, 50 jaar jubileum, version 3, 17 May 2025, and the station sheets DHL SPORTDAG and DHL SPORTONDERDELEN.

• dhlexpress.nl, 50th anniversary of DHL Express NL (interview with managing director Kees de Lange).

• Programme booklet De Onbeperkte Sportdag 2025 (Toyota, 1 June 2025) and the briefing for clinic holders of 6 October 2024.

• Production book Spieren voor Spieren dag, Friendship Sports Centre, 7 September 2025.

• Endless Minds event records on the Trello board EVENTS ENDLESS MINDS; friendshipsc.nl for the facilities.