Copenhagen – TECH BBQ – Are Danish people the friendliest in Europe?
I love Denmark. The landscape, the design, the sailing. Adam and I decided to go there to explore the IT ecosystem. This is why we applied to the TECHBBQ event with our startup, Advisero.
It was a very good event. There were a few thousand people and we had a chance to chat with representatives of LEGO and other great companies! The best part of it was the matchmaking system where you can have 10-15 meetings per day in which you had the chance to talk with them for around 20 minutes. We met some really great people!
We had plenty of discussions with all types of personnel from the IT world. We see that there is a lack of good tech teams in Denmark and Danish people are very open to working with us.
What was very inspiring to me was Copenhagen as a city. I have been there a few times already but I always discover something new. Also, people were so open and friendly. My observation from previous trips to Norway was that it takes more time to interact and build trust, yet in Copenhagen, there were so many like-minded people with great ideas who were willing to connect and share some thoughts.
Currently, we are planning to organize our own event in Copenhagen with the FintechLab. If you are interested in joining, please send me an email (damian.winkowski@leocode.com) and you will receive further information about the event.
London – God save the Queen
Our trip to London started on Monday at a crowded Luton airport. We had to wait for more than one hour before entering the country – getting into the UK is a challenge, especially on Mondays! After that, it was a rollercoaster. The city never sleeps!
We had around 5-6 meetings every day so it was very intensive. We were jumping from place to place ending in “Google Campus” or “some Pub” in London. What I really like about this place is the pace of life. On one hand, it’s a bit scary to live in such a rush, but from a business point of view it’s perfect because you have a quick discussion here, a brief chat there, a quick decision is made and suddenly, you’re standing at the start of your project!
We met some old friends and had a lot of interesting discussions about digitalization and, of course, Brexit. You bet, it’s a hot topic there. Even for us, doing business with UK companies it’s still a big question mark – what’s going to change? How will it influence the cooperation between the UK and Polish tech companies? We will have to wait and see.
After three days we were quite tired but nevertheless really excited. Packed with new know-how and new friendships we came back to Poland.
Stockholm – the Scandinavian vibe
This time it was different. We weren’t just visiting – we had our own event called “The Blockchain and Cybersecurity Breakfast”.
It’s an interesting concept. We’ve done similar events in the past and it was quite successful. The idea is that you have a relevant topic, you invite people who are interested in it and finally, it makes a lot of sense to everyone.
We partnered with Roedl & Partners (a law firm) and the event took place at their office. We gathered 15 people and had an interesting discussion about the use of blockchain, and related questions. During the break, we had great food and some much-needed coffee so people could mingle and network.
I’ve had some very positive feedback from the event and many people were asking for more events just like it, as well as follow-ups in the form of one-to-one calls.
Sweden is a great place to be and there are already plenty of companies working with Polish tech teams. Some open their own offices, others cooperate with external teams in the form of outsourcing/nearshoring. Everyone can find their sweet spot when collaborating in this way.
So what next?
We will continue our journey, travel back to the Nordics and explore those beautiful countries.
Next stop: SLUSH in Helsinki!
