Day Eight - Vice Chairmans, More Cafe's, and Europeanism

Yesterday we went to the University of Gothenburg for the business class's masters in marketing presentation to the faculty of the business department. Since the topic was an analysis of Volvo car's move to Asia, the vice chairman of Volvo worldwide was invited to hear their ideas. Mr. Hans Olav Olsson serves as the vice chairman of Volvo and was a former CEO of the entire company. When you are in a room with a man that successful, it is almost as if it is contagious and you can feel the presence.

After the presentations, we met with the international club and two girls from Sweden took us out to a very nice cafe and bought everyone a Semla. They are very similar to cream puffs but with a Swedish twist and some almond paste in the middle. They were very good.

With the rest of the day, the girls from the international club showed us around the trendy designer stores in Sweden and we went out for some exploring on the night as well.

With all this said, there are some things about Sweden that just need to change.
1. Outlets, please conform to the US voltage. These adapters are ridiculous
2. Paying to go to the restroom.
3. Having to put your room card in the switch to turn on the lights.
There are some more that I can't think of right now, but those things are where Sweden lacks in culture.

That's all for now, going back to bed to get another hour so I can be rested for today's adventure.

Day Seven - A nice cafe, Googling, and seafood

This morning we once again were up early and got the University of Gothenburg by 9 for the continuation of the  SAI Sjofartens Analys Institut (The Institute of Shipping Analysis) Executive meeting. This meeting in the morning was for the most part an exhibition of avoiding catching up on the lacking sleep at the beginning but after a conversation with a keynote speaker with Matt Holmes, I was very interested to hear what Hans Correll, a member of the legal counsel of the UN, had to say about transport in the arctic region. The ownership and transport rights of the waters in the arctic is more interesting and meaningful than one would think at first impression.

After the session, Bryan, Jon, Alex, and I headed to Haga Nygata which is the college street in Gothenburg to find a cafe for lunch. We found a great spot called Grappoline where I had a great lasagna and a bottle of Nygarda, a Swedish soda.

Our afternoon company tour was to ASCOM which is a wireless 'mission critical' communication provider. This means that if a company needs to have extremely reliable versatile wireless communication quickly, they are the provider to use. Their systems are used widely in hospitals throughout Europe and some in the US as well.

Anna, a marketing director taught us the ins and outs of how to market through Google. The sponsored links on Google are a matrix of bids and wordplay that each industry fights aggressively for. ASCOM markets directly against their main competitor, CISCO, by buying the rights to keywords that would be able to generally find a CISCO product. The system was really remarkable.

Rolling the herring balls.

We rushed back to get to our night appointment as soon as possible. After stripping out of our dress clothes and jumping back on the bus and trams, we got to the harbor to a cook your own fish restaurant. Since it was right in the harbor the fish came in early and the morning and was fresh on the counter when we got there. Kim, Lisa, and I had the task of making herring balls. You read that right: Herring balls. They contained herring, cream cheese, onions, chives, and dill. A perfect combination for me. With a small amount of help from Annika, the chef's assistant, we finished the balls and served them to the group. The head chef, who had cooked for the Queen and Prime Minister of Sweden, said it was very good and said she would put me on the homepage of her website.

Here's what the group ended up making.

Salmon and shrimp mixed with cream and served on carefully sauteed bread was the first appetizer followed by our herring balls.

The main course was a breaded 'Witch Fish,' which from what I understand is the American flounder, served with shrimp and mushroom risotto and green beans. Surprisingly, throughout this all, I remained a member of the Clean Plate Club. That's for you mom :).

Dessert was a delectable white chocolate mousse with raspberry topping. JM specially shaped the raspberries in a heart just for me. It was an awesome dinner experience.

I am now looking forward to what will be another great day tomorrow and an awesome weekend.

Day 6 - Unique Furniture, Pirates, and Fish

ABB - sales and marketing building: Molndal, Sweden

Our morning adventure led us to ABB, a company similar to the US company General Electric. Our professor, JJ Shields, worked at ABB for nearly ten years in the robotics division. His boss, project manager Burt Thorvaldsson, gave us a presentation about the company with special emphasis on robotics and how automation affects the world market.

ABB provided lunch and it was great, any opportunity for free food in Sweden is well appreciated as the standard fish'n chips tonight cost me $25 US. The highlight was the bakery afterwards. We all got a chocolate dipped pastry filled with mousse. None of us could understand the Swedish word for the pastries, so we'll just call them heaven.

Sofa at Volvo Truck, poor for napping

Almost everywhere we have gone so far, the lounges have been interesting, to say the least. Strange furniture must be the style in Gothenburg.

ABB lobby

After finishing lunch, we headed back to the University to a conference on the maritime shipping industry. Some presentations focused on the Chinese influence in shipping distribution and the global recession but the most interesting was one on shipping piracy. After nearly an hour presentation, I now know what to do in case my cargo ship is boarded by Somalian pirates.

Chariot racing was on TV when we went to bed last night.  Number 5 won.

Today, when I was talking with a global market genius about the sustainability of Chinese high-tech industry growth at the shipping conference, I though of how lucky I am to be in Sweden and not studying the fundamentals of philosophy in women's history back in Kenosha.
Hope to tell of more adventures tomorrow.

Day Five - Autoadapt, Volvo Truck, and public transportation

Another early morning: at the lobby to catch the bus that Autoadapt chartered for us at 8:15 sharp.

Autoadapt is the sister company to Bruno Inc. which we toured in the US before we left, located in Oconomowoc Wisconsin. Autoadapt designs, manufactures, and installs car adaptations for handicapped people so they don't lose mobility. The company tour was awesome. We toured the facilities and got a lecture on how to grow a company from the CEO, Häkan Sandberg. Autoadapt had a truly unique way of doing business in which the company administration rotates every two years so each person will always have a fresh perspective on their task. The manufacturing workers rotated even more frequently. The CEO and Vice President, Peter Wahlsten, gave us strong perspective about how to make and keep goals and advice on how to create a great business plan. It all finished off with a great, free lunch. The facility was immaculate and gave a new perspective of business.

Doesn't look like your standard office building

Our next stop was Volvo Truck's world headquarters. This is not to be confused with the Volvo cars that we are familiar with. That portion of the company was sold to Ford and later to Geely, a Chinese group. The company focused on Buses, Trucks, and Construction Equipment. The perspective that Volvo trucks had on the global economy was tremendous.

The nice ride of a Volvo

After the presentation, the only question was, "How do we get back?" A small group of us took off down a remarkably grassy path to the bottom of the hill that Volvo was located on. We had no idea where the bus had dropped us when we got there and were shocked to find ourself miles from Gothenburg, without any idea where we were and any idea how to get back.

We boarded the first bus to come and I somehow hand-gestured an Arab, non-English speaking bus driver to get to the next stop and got some help from an English Swede at the next stop.

We just finished a dinner at Rumpanbar of an interesting pizza and look forward to a day at ABB in the morning and the University in the afternoon for a conference on international maritime shipping.
Sweden is the best.

Day Four - Early wakeup calls, Lectures, and saving money

The sun almost shined today. It would have been unreal.

Day four woke us up the earliest we had been up all trip: 8:20. That's in the AM. After days of denying any sort of jet-lag, I might have been jet-lagged this morning because this was one of the most tired mornings that I have ever endured. We listened to a very interesting presentation from Claus, a former vice dean of Gothenburg University, on the current Business conditions in Sweden. After a quick lunch break with the Swedish students, we listened to another presentation on sports marketing centering on the Beijing games and the European football championships of 2008. Harald, a professor from Germany gave us great insight on the European sports marketing scene. The lectures finished up with JJ giving us insight on the paint schemes of race cars. More interesting than you would think.

Tonight for dinner we looked at some menus and after seeing 3 digits instead of 2, we got more creative.

It turned out great.

Bryan's tortellini, not so much but it was all in good fun.

Bryan burnt his hand even while wearing two different oven mitts

Tonight, I showed Bryan who is boss in some cards (again) but now need to get sleep for the much anticipated tour of Autoadapt, a car handicap adaption company my team did a presentation on, and also a tour of Volvo Truck. Couldn't be more excited.

Day Three - Packers games in Europe, Trains going the wrong way, and Prams

After seriously catching up on sleep, Bryan and I took an adventure to Brunnsparken and Nordstan, the shopping district of Gothenburg to check out the local shopping scene. Most of the stores outside were closed so we went in the indoor mall and saw this:

Yes, that's right. A pole vaulting meet in the middle of the mall. The pole vault shown was good for second place. We took a long tour on the train after getting on the right train line going the wrong direction and saw some great scenery along the way.

Our group at dinner on the Linneplatsen

On a side note, most people in Sweden push prams instead of strollers to transport their children. I've never seen a pram in America and really have only heard about them in 60s and 70s music. I think they are awesome.

The real story of today was last night. 

We met some very fun people from Australia, Lei and Charlie who both had their Norwegian girlfriends with them at our hostel, in which they were enjoying a night away. We went to the local pub and then again headed to the Avenyn to a club this time with only a 22 age minimum.  

Gothenburg's Ferris Wheel overlooking the river

The club was called Bersa' (accent on the a) and it was a cultural melting pot of Australians, Norwegians, Americans, Swedes, and any other nationality that you could have thought of. It was a great time. 

We finally got back to the room just before the game. The packers had the nerve to not start their game until 2:45 am Swedish time which left me awake til 5:15. By the way, Great win: see you all in the Super Bowl. 

Our first real day of work begins tomorrow as we will go the University of Gothenburg to hear a presentation on sports marketing by the world famous JJ Shields as well as a day planned full of other amazing academic activities.

The pictures that I'm taking are great and I can't wait to show everyone once I get home.

That's all for now. Can't wait to wake up tomorrow to have another Swedish experience!

Are there snow plows in Sweden?

Day 2

Before you start reading, cue this, it'll put you in the Swedish thought.
Our first night abroad was a great time. 'Carthage Cocktail Hour' in the basement of the hostel started off the night where we toured the local bar scene but after some great tips from Swedish blondes, took the train aimlessly to Avenyn, the heart of Gothenburg.
About 11:30 local time, with snow just starting to fall from the sky, we boarded #1, a tram headed straight for Avenyn. Jon, Alex, Bryan, I found ourselves on a train, in a city that we didn't know, surrounded by a language we didn't know, headed for a destination that we didn't know. Sounds like the best combination for a great night. After looking into every pub and club in the whole city, we decided to stay at a club on the very north end of Avenyn, or the Avenue.
With our US drivers licenses in hand we convinced the non-English speaking bouncer that we were 22 and got into a club which used to be some sort of a famous art studio. After a great time hanging out with the group and some Europeans, we headed back to the hostel.
Alex Braatz gave us great directions back to the hostel by way of the overly confusing, Swedish tram system. Due to the seemingly minimal amount of snow and the Swedes' unpreparedness for such conditions, the tram couldn't make it up the hill and we found ourselves walking back from the Avenyn at 3:30 on streets we have never been on.
First night success. Check.
Today so far has been relaxing. A bus tour this morning laid out the scene of our Swedish invasion
A great dinner was had a local eatery of salmon and steak and potatoes.
Off to have a night as promising as last night in the college district.
Pictures from the tour: Massthuggskyrkan on the right overlooking the city.

Jon Welser with his bro Gustav