#3 - Intensive course to business travel – case example

Soon after my graduation I was heading to my first business trip outside Finland. I was going to a standardization meeting in Ulm Germany and I was lucky to have a senior engineering professional, Mr W. travelling with me. We were flying to Munich, from where we were supposed to take a train to Ulm. First things first – lesson number one. We headed to Hofbräuhaus in order to enjoy the famous big pint of beer and some German sausage. After that we were ready to take a train to Ulm.

Ulm - real intensive course. Source: Here.com

Finally we arrived at the Ulm Maritim hotel. The hotel looked very new and nice. Luckily we had a company price agreed for our stay, because otherwise the price would have been rather expensive. Already during the first morning I was happy to notice that they served champagne with strawberries at the breakfast. Despite my juniority, the meeting went very well even if all days long part of my attention was taken by the enormous crystal chandelier that was almost the size of a medium size ballroom.

One evening we were offered a nice seven course dinner outside the city area. Participants from various European companies were sitting in several small tables. I and Mr. W. were sitting together with Swedish delegates and a couple of persons from other countries. As a junior delegate, I was not very proactive in small talk. However, that was perfectly compensated by Mr. W. who was sitting next to me and entertaining the table with his stories about Swedish Christmas delicacy sour herring. Especially the description of the process in which the rotten herring develops high pressure gas that expands the conservation can made some delegates feel sick during the dinner. However, the food was delicious and the evening was entertaining.

The meeting went well, as I managed to initiate some important technology development. This is real style to make business travel, I thought. Unfortunately the following years have bitterly demonstrated that business travel is seldom such a luxury.

Lessons learnt:

Prioritization - first things first.

Coaching culture – Kick-start your learning with a senior coach.

First impression may be misleading.

#2 - Mon€y counts

Now that everyone has been following the world economy and the €uropean financial crisis, it is good time to take a look back at the time when Euro was not yet in use. As a university student I was lucky enough to get a decent summer job in Tampere. That gave me some extra wealth to the otherwise tight student budget, so I and my girl friend headed to Costa Blanca, Spain, for a five week’s vacation. We stayed at the villa of my relatives, who were kind enough letting us to stay there. After exchanging some money in a bank and packing our suitcases, we were ready to take off. It felt so good with a pile of notes in my pocket.

Warm and humid air welcomed us at the Alicante airport after the midnight. We jumped into a taxi that drove us through the dark roads about one hour south on the cost line. Finally we arrived at the destination and it was time to pay the long trip. Even if the taxi driver spoke only Spanish, I was clever enough to note that something was wrong. Luckily as a child I had been active watching some western movies and therefore I had my four world vocabulary of Spanish (i.e. amigo, sombrero, mañana, Finlandesa). It became clear that instead of Spanish Pesetas, our notes were Greece Drachmas and the driver was very pissed off.

From my earlier visit I remembered that at least some years ago there was a Finnish family living some hundreds of meters down the same street. With my Spanish and lively hands I succeeded to explain to the taxi driver that I will be running in from of the taxi that will show me some light in the dark street. I was reading all the letter boxes in order to find a hint of a Finnish name. After about one kilometer run I found the sign of family V. in a letter box. I rang the door bell and after a while to door was opened. I explained that I am a Finn in Spain and I need some money. Finns always start with full trust, so I got the needed money and was able to pay the taxi driver. The driver took the money and sped angrily away.

The next morning family V. came to meet us. They were very kind and drove us to the nearest town where we could get some money out of the ATM. It was amazing that you were already late 90’s able to withdraw some Pesetas from a Spanish ATM with Finnish bank card. We were able to pay our debt and we also got new friends who were spending their retirement days in the sunny Costa Blanca.

The rest of the vacation went perfectly. We were sleeping long nights and daily siestas in order to get fresh again. The Spanish food was perfect and sun was shining every day. For a reason or another, I got an inspiration to study some Spanish. I was able to grow my vocabulary by reading Spanish-Finnish dictionary and by having some discussions with the native gardener who visited us couple times during the vacation.

While we returned back to Tampere, the university semester had started already some weeks ago. However, I was persistent enough to get into Spanish lectures by explaining the teacher how I got my sparkle to Spanish.

Lessons learnt:

Money counts.

Finns start relation with full trust.

Our vacation at Costa Blanca, Spain. Source: Here.com

#1 - About this Blog

There is always room for sneakers in my suitcase

Are you travelling in business or pleasure? That is a good question, but why wouldn’t you combine those?

The author has experienced both enjoyable and awkward situations while traveling during two centuries in pleasure and two millenniums in business. This blog tries to turn those moments into enjoyable stories, as it is often easier to laugh afterwards. The blog also tries to turn those travel experiences into life-long learning.

All the stories in this blog are true, but the imagination of the author may have added some ingredients to the stories. In order to keep some privacy, the author has used a secret scientific algorithm to shorten the names of the persons starring in the stories. Beware; you may be one of the characters in the next stories.

This blog starts by presenting various travel stories. The key take away is finally summarized in the chapter about Guiding principles for business and pleasure, as well as Editor’s choice of recommendations for the reader.

The author of this blog:

You are in Tampere region if you can see
the Näsinneula sighseeing tower

The author of this blog is a person who has had enough courage to travel out of Tampere region, despite his opinion about Tampere as the center of the Universe. In order to feel more, he has tried to keep his mind and eyes open.  There is always room for sneakers in his suitcase and room for a tasty dinner in his stomach.

The target of SneakerTraveller