Sunday, November 22, 2009

Business is a trip


This past week I was afforded the opportunity to go on a business trip to Göteborg Sweden. My supervisor Jesper was helping coordinate a regional marketing event on packaging in the Göteborg office, and as long as I was able to justify my travel expense by arranging interviews for my project, I could go. So, I managed to secure two interviews with key value chain actors to assist in my quest to understand the diffusion of Energy Efficiency Innovations into the Swedish Construction Industry, and was thus able to go.

The trip was great. I got to stay in a nice hotel, ate nice meals, and got to have beers and chat with a crowd of interesting managers from all over Northern Europe. In the day I was able to sit in on this marketing event, and got a clearer picture of how the rubber hits the road with products and clients. All in all very educational experience. Plus my interviews were phenomenal, one with an architect, and one with a LEED commercial development project manager at Skanska, a wonderfully run forward thinking contracting company operating on a global scale. Admittedly I am trying to find a company with international opportunities to work for when I am done with school, and Skanska is a good one. Then in the bonus round a legitimate wind storm, complete with sheets of rain, jack-knifed a rig on the international bridge between Sweden and denmark, stranding us in Malmo for a few hours on our way home. Jesper has a wife and 2 little kids to see, so he had a reason to curse the situation (although he kept a zen calm), I on the other hand got to see another city, which is only 20 minutes by train out of Copenhagen. I got a close up view of the turning torso (pictured above), and a driving tour of the town including a castle and a nice town center. All in all a success for my first expensed business trip.

1 comment:

Vanessa said...

I want to go to Sweden - that sounds fantastic.
Glad you were able to meet with some good companies. Sounds like you are learning a lot - keep it up!
See you in a few DAYS!!!
Your loving fiance,
V