Company Event Report: Celebrating Our 2026 Welcome Party!🌸

※この記事は、下記の記事の英語版です。
This is an English version of the article below.

For many companies, April 1st is a special day — the day new employees join the team.
 
At Goal connect (hereafter "GC"), it marks an important milestone as well. GC holds two company-wide events every year, and one of them is the welcome party on April 1st. (The other is our anniversary celebration held on December 12th, our founding day.)

In this article, we'll look back on the welcome party held on April 1st, 2026. It was a chance for everyone to reflect on the past year, start the new fiscal year with fresh energy, and welcome the new members who joined us in April. The whole GC team came together to deepen our connections. 🌸

A Greeting to Open the New Year

Ahead of the evening party, President Oshita gave a start-of-year address at the office earlier that day. He also personally handed business cards to the three new members joining GC in April.

Heading to the Venue…

The party was held at a restaurant conveniently located near the office. The food is delicious and the space is just the right size for GC, so it's become our go-to spot for the past few years.

After wrapping up work for the day, everyone made their own way to the venue.
On a side note — although we'd been getting more warm days since late March, this particular day was unfortunately cold and rainy. ☔

(And here's another aside: when we looked back at last year's welcome party notes, it turns out that day was rainy too. Could April 1st just be a day that's prone to rain…?)

And So, the Party Begins!

Once everyone had arrived and received their first drink, Makino — one of our event organizers — announced the start of the party. Director Takahashi gave a few opening words, and we raised our glasses for a toast. After a while of eating, drinking, and chatting, the party's program got underway. The start-of-year party has a packed lineup, so it always keeps us pretty busy!

■ Program 1: The Portrait Illustration Quiz

The first activity our organizing team came up with was the "GC Member Portrait Illustration Quiz."

🐶 Karen Makino:
"At GC, Homma from our design team draws a portrait illustration of every single employee. We all use them as our icons in the chat tools we use day to day, and they're just so cute…"

🐸 Homma:
"Thank you! 😊But just so everyone knows — they're a gift from the company, so not everyone automatically gets one (at least, that's the official line). Please don't take them for granted, everyone!"

At this party, we were set to unveil six new portraits for our most recent hires. But simply revealing them would be no fun… so the organizing team turned it into a quiz!

🐸 Homma:
"When people join GC, we ask each of them for their favorite color. That color becomes their 'GC personal color,' and we use it as the background for their portrait. We also interview each person about their hobbies and favorite things, then weave in elements that capture what they love and what makes them who they are!"

For example, take this illustration👇

From the deep-green background, a love of the band Southern(Sazan) All Stars, and a passion for blind soccer, you might realize: "This is Makino!" — and score 1 point! Then, thinking "What's one of Makino's favorite things…?", if you spot that the hidden item in the top left is "Jiro-style ramen!", you earn an additional 3 points.

This time we revealed three portraits in quiz form, and due to time constraints introduced the remaining three in the usual way!

■ Program 2: The Awards

Next up was the presentation of company awards to those who excelled and grew over the past 2025 fiscal year. This, too, is a fixture of GC's start-of-year party.

First was the award for Goal Rush, a program that we launched in earnest in fiscal 2025.

This year's Goal Rush went to Tran, who is from Vietnam!
Tran proactively offered improvement suggestions throughout the year. For his prize, he chose a HUAWEI smartwatch — he wanted it to measure his body data while playing sports. (Tran loves badminton and is a member of the GC badminton club.)

Next came the Outstanding Member and MVP awards for fiscal 2025.

The fiscal 2025 Outstanding Member awards went to Chaw, from Myanmar, and Loc, from Vietnam. They received a fruit catalog gift and a liquor catalog gift, respectively.

And the fiscal 2025 MVP was — none other than Tran, who had just won Goal Rush as well! Tran was presented with a travel voucher for two.

Next was the Premium Intern award.

This year's Premium Intern was Tanji!
Tanji received a keyboard as a prize. Because he works with all kinds of computers — his personal laptop, lab PCs, a Raspberry Pi, ESP boards, and more — he'd been wanting a single keyboard he could use across all of them!

Last was the results announcement and awards for ARIGATO POINT (Thank-You Points), which also began in fiscal 2025.

This time we honored the top three members who earned the most ARIGATO POINTs.
A representative of those who had voted for each winner shared why they'd sent their thanks, then handed the winners their prizes along with a heartfelt "Thank you!"

Among the messages of gratitude were:
"Thank you for always guiding me."
"Even though you're not the type to seek the spotlight, thank you for always supporting the company."
"Thank you for handling all my little requests."

With ARIGATO POINT, you can vote for anyone you want to thank — regardless of age, title, or department.

Beyond the three members recognized this time, words of thanks were sent to many others across the company.

Each winner shared a few words upon receiving their award. 🎤

This year again, let's keep connecting each person's strengths and, as Goal connect, create even greater value together!

And Finally…

To close out the party, we heard from CTO Mosleh and President & CEO Oshita.

As the world changes rapidly, fiscal 2026 will be a year to make the value we deliver "stronger and more solid" than ever.

Let's come together as one team and make this a great year for the company! 🎉