Day 4 Lets Get To Business

I woke up to a loud knock on our door this morning. My two roommates and I all looked at each other and did a quick rock paper scissors to see who would answer the door. My roommate joe lost so he got up to answer the door. Our female neighbors kindly came over to wake us up for our first trip to a business today. Although they came quite a bit earlier than we were planning to get up... It was definitely a good thing though we had plenty of time to get ready and prepare for the day.

Our first visit today was to Skapa. My other roommate Tyler was in charge of getting directions to get us to Skapa on time today. Last night we figured out a short route on the train to get there. Skapa had a beautiful office. It was so clean and very welcoming. They are a marketing company who is concentrated on social media. The CEO Erik Ekholm greeted us and led us to our conference room where he would give his presentation.

Erik started this company from the ground with his wife. Although his wife was a marketing major and he was an engineering major they created this wonderful business who does a really great job of helping a lot of big named companies with their social media websites. I really learned a lot from Erik's presentation on marketing in social media. Erik also had some very interesting statistics on where social media is used around the word. Of all twitter users 95% are from the United States. He also had a few slides that showed the various search engine results for some of his clients and how their webpages were activated. We watched some fantastic marketing videos during the presentation. These were some really popular videos on YouTube. Companies posted these videos on YouTube as a way to get the consumers attention. It is very interesting how many different ways companies can grab the consumers attention.

Our next stop on our trip today was to Gothenburg University. We sat down and had lunch in the cafeteria first. Let me tell you the food they served there was fantastic! I am quite jealous our cafeteria isn't pumping out food like this. After lunch we entered one of the lecture halls and professor Claes gave us a brief powerpoint on Swedish business. Professor Claes gave a very informative speech on the history of Sweden as well as the economics of Sweden. He spoke briefly on the housing bubble in 2007. Sweden was actually one of the first to recover from the crisis and it resulted in very little debt. Many other countries struggling with getting out of the recession took some of Sweden's ideas to help get themselves out of it.

There were two other speakers who spoke who both had gone to school at the university as well as somewhere outside of Sweden. My favorite was the male speaker who had visited the U.S. for graduate school. He spoke to us about his opinion of Americans as well as some of the activities he did while being overseas. I found his stances on some of the political parties to be very interesting as well as some of his positive thoughts on Americans.

After our final meeting at the university a few of us walked over to Haga to shop for a bit. Unfortunately we couldn't find anything to purchase but towards the end we decided to stop in this nice sports bar for dinner. They made some very good food, I got a wonderful cheese burger and fries! Yes I know very American. We listened to one of the bands playing there and had a few of the beers on tap. I really love trying all these different beers here in Europe. I am making it a new goal of mine to try a new beer if I decide to have one every night.

Day 3 The Freezing Island

Last night we went out in a large group and went on a small bar crawl on Langgatan. It was a wonderful night we got to meet many of the locals of Gothenburg. They were all very nice and always willing to help us attempt to learn some Swedish. It ended up being a pretty late night and many of us stayed up after we got back from the bar to talk about our night. Couldn’t have asked to spend a second night in Sweden with anyone better than the group we had!

Motor Bike Used On Island

Waking up in the morning was not the easiest. Luckily the girls next door to us came and warned us that we would be heading to the Branno Vardshus Islands today. We quickly got ready and somehow made it to breakfast before it closed! After breakfast we went and put on a few more layers so we wouldn’t get to cold out on the island and ferry. The ferry ride to the island was beautiful. One of the coolest sights I have ever seen. There were just hundreds of large islands covered in snow with a ton of pretty looking houses. It was very cold after getting of the boat and we had about a twenty-minute walk up the island to get to our lunch destination. The island doesn’t allow and cars or trucks on it. So they use 4 wheelers as well as this motorbike vehicle. This island was so pretty and very calm. It was so far away from all of the hustle and bustle of the city. It was a very peaceful walk with fantastic views. I would highly recommend making this a stop if you are planning on visit Gothenburg.

We finally finished our cold trek through the island and made it to this small restaurant. This was a very nice place to eat and they offered some very good seafood items. I decided to get a clam and shrimp dish and it was amazing! I had never tried clams before but they were delicious. We made our way back to the ferry. We froze while waiting for the ferry since we had to wait for 30 minutes out in the cold. It was like walking into an oven when we boarded the ferry. The beating we all took from the elements while waiting for the ferry took a toll on us all as we were all barely staying awake on our ride back to the mainland.

We were all icicles when we finally arrived back to the hotel. A few of us decided it was time to test the sauna out for the first time. Six of us reserved a time and went over there to warm up. We didn’t exactly know how to work it right away so for a while we were just sitting in a really hot room. Finally after about 35 minutes we realized that we were suppose to pour water onto the coals to create some steam. Once we got it working we only needed to be in there for about 10 minutes before we were all drenched in sweat! It was a blast in there we will definitely be in there again soon!

Group Photo On The Island

Day 2 Bus Tour

Day two started off very nicely as we casually woke up and arrived for our first breakfast at our hotel. Breakfast was very different than in the states. Whenever you attend a hotels breakfast they usually have eggs, pancakes, waffles or something of this nature. Over here in Sweden they have been serving a variety of different rolls and bread with different spreads to put on top such as Jelly or herring. Despite the difference in what is served for breakfast it was still great!

In front of Poseidon 

Shortly after breakfast we had a bus tour to explore the city. Our wonderful tour guide Grenaolda showed us some very cool places to visit while we were here in Gothenburg. We went to a number of locations but my two favorite locations that I am very interested in attending would be the Universium. The Universium is a museum similar to the Field Museum in Chicago. They have a ton of displays that I think would be very interested in. They have two huge dinosaurs statues that are displayed outside of the building. I am extremely interested in dinosaurs so right away when I saw those statues I automatically wanted to go there but another cool display they have is a rainforest display where they have monkeys that run around on the path you walk on and you can interact with. The second place I would really enjoy going to is NorthStand mall. It is this gigantic mall that runs throughout Gothenburg with what seems to be an endless amount of stores in it. I am not a really big shopper but I would like to go shopping here to see the difference between some of the similar stores in the U.S. as well as the different styles of clothing that they have here in Sweden.

Mrs. Shields and I in Gothenburg

Day 1 - The Flight Over The Pond

Finally the day is here!! We are going to Sweden!!! I can barely even sleep i am lying here wide awake at 6:40 A.M. with excitement and fear just overwhelming me. You are probably wondering why fear is in there. Well for those of you who don't already know I am extremely afraid of flying on planes. So you can imagine flying for 8 hours over the Atlantic Ocean would be an extremely large fear for me!

Finally we are in the shuttles and on our way to the airport. The whole way there we are figuring out all of the things we would like to do while we are there. At last we arrive to O’hare and after we check our bags in its off to security. I don’t know why but I was a little nervous for some reason. Obviously I had nothing to hide but I guess they were just my last barrier from making it on the plane. As I walked through the metal detector the security lady just smiled at me and said have a great trip. I felt as if a huge weight was just lifted off of me. We all gathered up outside of our gate and played a quick game of 31 before we boarded the plane. As we waited in line the fear of flying was nowhere to be found. I was so excited that I had no worry in the world. Although this did not last for long, As soon as they started to bring our plane onto the runway my stomach dropped. I grabbed the “barf bag” and opened it up just as a precaution. Finally we started take off and as we are speeding down the runway I white knuckled my seat and concentrated on the screen in front of me! We made it to the correct altitude and I was still white knuckling my seat but I was perfectly fine. Finally the guy seated next to me finally got me to relax and all was good. In all honesty the flight in this plane was absolutely nothing. You could barely tell we were flying. Now when we stopped and got into this tiny plane to finish off the trip to Gothenburg a smooth flight is the farthest thing from how this flight went. From take off to right before we landed we were constantly shaking. To say the least my hands were hurting from gripping the seat so tightly! We made it in one piece though so no complaints from me!

Second Flight

After we all gathered up our luggage we all got into taxis and made our way to the Slottis which is where we are staying. Once we arrived and were assigned our room we went and unpacked. JJ warned us that the rooms were going to be small but I figured since we were a triple we may have a slightly larger room. Boy was I wrong our room is very small and at first I thought it would be a struggle to live in but the longer I am in it the more I like it. After about an hour of getting ready we went out to an Italian restaurant around the corner. They had outstanding food! Our waitresses were so extremely nice with helping us figure out the menu as well as helping us learn some Swedish. I absolutely butchered all of the words they taught us but its still the first day so I still have some time to learn!

Even though we all had jet lag we decided to go out and explore some of the bars. We walked to Linnegatan street and I must say this is one of the prettiest streets I have ever been on.The buildings were all tall and beautiful brick apartments and randomly lined with lights. It was a great sight. We went to a few of the pubs and had a few drinks and called it an early night. We didn’t really do much exploring this first night. We intend to do a little more exploring tomorrow.

Bruno Independent Living Aid

After a slow start this morning we made a late departure north to Bruno. It was actually looking like we were going to be a bit late but luckily our carpool driver Mr. Kiser handled the Milwaukee traffic like a champ and got us their 15 minutes early as our professor JJ shields was walking in.

Right away when we walked in the lovely receptionist Sue greeted us gave us the proper safety equipment for our tour. Finally after every one arrived we were introduced to Bill Benson the director of engineering at Bruno. Bill was a great host and showed us around the factory where they assemble their products and ship them out. It blew my mind how much Bill knew about everything that went on in his factory. Bill was never stumped by any of our questions and explained every product station that we stopped at in great detail. 

One of my favorite products that Bruno was working on in their factory was their valet signature seating. This is a seat in the car that lifts you out of the car and lowers you down to the ground so you don’t need to worry about falling or hurting yourself while getting in or out of your car. This hit home for me due to the fact that I have a handicapped brother. One of the hardest things for us to do is get him into the front seat of a car if he doesn’t want to ride in his wheel chair. It is a two-man job to do this. My dad has to lifts my brother out of his chair and walk him to the car door as I crawl in through the car and grab my brothers feet and lower them to where your feet normally go. After a few minutes of adjusting we finally have my brother comfortably situated in the car. This is a very strenuous task for us as well as my brother. I know for a fact that if we were to get a car seat like the valet signature seating that it would be so much simpler to get my brother in and out of the car. You can see in the video I posted how this chair would work if it were in a car.

After exploring the factory floor we went into one of the conference rooms where Bill had a few of his marketing team members come in to speak to us. I was very interested in the things they were doing to try and beat out competitors. Things such as properly positioning the company when using the Google search engine, creating an easy to use online format for the companies many dealers around the country, and even things as small as a new consumer friendly product brochure.

I do have to say though my favorite thing by far about Bruno is their slogan on their web page. It is “Bruno for your independence”.  Many people take for granted independence. They don’t quite realize how important it is until it is gone. Many of the people that Bruno reaches out to are elderly people who are just recently reliant on some type of aid to get around or even someone who is born with a disability and is required to rely on help all the time. I think that Bruno is doing a fantastic job in giving these consumers a product that can give them some of that independence back or give someone that feeling of independence who could never experience it before.

This was a fantastic experience and I want to thank all of the people from Bruno who made this experience possible!