Kick-Off 2010 in Copenhagen

Once a year, usually in the beginning of a year, Haman Group organises a 3-days kick-off over the weekend to some place. That is a trip where all colleagues - from the Oslo office, the Stockholm office and our sales representatives in Germany and Finland - get together with the actual purpose of talking about business, the company, the future etc. But of course, this becomes let's say a secondary issue. In the first place it simply seems to be a big party and having a great time with your colleagues :-)

Well, the organisation of that event alternates every year among the Stockholm and the Oslo office. This year's kick-off was organised by the colleagues in Sweden and the winning destination was Copenhagen - from 26-28 March 2010 :-)



Early in the morning of friday 26th of March a SAS flight takes me togehter with my colleagues from Oslo to Copenhagen where we meet all the others.





A bus takes our group of about 40 people to the former Carlsberg brewery, right in the city centre of Copenhagen.





We start our kick-off with a guided tour through the Carlsberg Visitors Centre and around the whole area of the brewery. It's a tourist attraction, thus something that we do include also in the programmes/tours for our clients.

























A short presentation about the facilities and services that can be offered to tourists.








Today, the Carlsberg "brewery horses" are used solely as "ambassadors": at festivals and fairs or on special occasions for customers e.g. delivering beer with carriages to restaurants or other buyers in town.











All the sorts of beers brewed under the Carlsberg brand.










The former residence of the brewery founders.


A portrait collection of all employees that worked for over 50 years for the Carlsberg company.




This visit finished with a lunch buffet in the old buildings.


Michelle, Charlotte & Ulrika


By bus through the town to our next stop.












The afternoon programm includes a visit to the self-governed commune of Christiania, also known as Freetown Christiania. It is a self-proclaimed autonomous neighbourhood of about 850 residents, covering 34 hectares in the borough of Christianshavn in Copenhagen. From an official point of view, Christiania is regarded as a large commune, but its relation to the authorities has a unique status in being regulated by a special law, the Christiania Law of 1989 which transfers parts of the supervision of the area from the municipality of Copenhagen to the state.

Christiania has been a source of controversy since its creation in a squatted military area in 1971. Its cannabis trade was tolerated by authorities until 2004. Since then, measures for normalising the legal status of the community have led to conflicts and negotiations are ongoing.

A guided tour by one of the freaky inhabitants of Christiania shows us the various corners and points of interests of this crazy place. It's definitely interesting to see, but I cannot understand how people can/want or are even proud of living there. It looks like a shabby and run-down suburban part of town, characterised by excessive cannabis trade on the so-called "Pusher Street", recycled houses built of spare parts and by a bunch of stoned(-looking) people pervaded by curious tourists.

During our guided tour, we were not allowed to take pictures in and around "Pusher Street" as the trade of cannabis is and still remains an illegal act. But following some pictures of other corners in Christiania.





















After our visit to Christiana we check-in to our hotel, Clarion Hotel Copenhagen, to get prepared for our "glitter & glamour"-themed dinner at the Copenhagen Island Hotel.








I use the pictures taken at that dinner to introduce you to my colleagues:

HAMAN GROUP

Anette (Swedish) - CEO


OSLO OFFICE

Haman Scandinavia - FIT Department

Michelle (South African)


Charlotte (Swedish)


Nicole (German) - Trainee Scandinavian Image & Cara (German) - Trainee Haman Scandinavia



Terra Nova

Franck (French) - Group Department
seems he misunderstood "Glitter & Glamour" ;-)


me - Group Department


Stéphanie (French) - FIT Department
before she replaced Elisa in the FIT Department she worked with me with the groups


Egil (Norwegian) - Terra Nova Outgoing Department
his colleague Odd-Arve unfortunately couldn't come to the kick-off this year


Anne (Norwegian) - Terra Nova Accounting


Charly (French) - Trainee FIT Department


Natacha (French) - Trainee FIT Department


Manouchka (French) - Trainee Group Department



Scandinavian Image (Norway)

Maria (Swedish)


Wiebke (German)


Sara (Swedish)



Authentic Scandinavia

Trude (Norwegian)



STOCKHOLM OFFICE
We had some rotations in that office so I'm not sure if I put all colleagues in their right position :-)
Nooshin, Ann-Sophie & Linda couldn't make it to Copenhagen with us.

Haman Scandinavia - Group Department

Maria Käll (Swedish)


Wolfgang (German)


Anja (German)


Irene (Austrian)


Heike (Swedish)


Carlijn (Dutch) - Trainee


Giuseppe (Italian) - Trainee



Scandinavian Image (Sweden)

Ann-Louise (Swedish)

(Her other colleagues unfortunately couldn't come to the Kick-Off)

Sahahb (Swedish/German)



Others / Administration

Gerlinde (Dutch) - Purchasing Manager


Kristian (Swedish) - Financial Manager


Fredrik (Swedish) - Accounting assistant / IT support


Ingela (Swedish) - Anette's right hand



INTERNATIONAL

Sales Representatives

Jürg (Swiss) - Sales Manager International/Germany in Aschaffenburg


Ulrika (Swedish) - Sales Manager Germany in Cologne area


Margareta (Finnish) - Sales Manager Scandinavia in Vaasa


The nominees for the "Employee of the Year 2009":
f.l.t.r. Wiebke, Christian, Michelle, Gerlinde, Trude & Wolfgang

For her enormous efforts and tiring work for that huge event for Audi in September 2009 Wiebke became the employee of the year and won a week holidays somewhere in Sweden.


And just some more pictures











In order to fulfill the business purpose of this kick-off trip, the next day, Saturday, starts with a visit and a conference on board the DFDS Seaways cruise ship covering daily the route Oslo-Copenhagen. After talking about 2009 business of the Haman Group and following team work on 2010 and future business we enjoyed a nice lunch buffet on the boat.

In the afternoon "Historic Tours Copenhagen" programmed a treasure hunt tour throughout the town of Copenhagen. Unfortunately this didn't give us a lot of time to really enjoy and discover this wonderful city. We only had time to focus on quickly finding the answers to the questions on the papers. Time wasn't even enough to deal with the different aspects we came across during this game, just make your cross on the sheet, write the answer and head off to the next point.
Therefore also the pictures below are not very elaborate and just quickly shot while running from one point to the other. Just trying to catch an impression of Copenhagen town.

































In the late afternoon we gather again at the beautiful and characteristic area of Nyhavn...











...where we have a nice dinner in a private area at the "Færgekro" restaurant.




Gerlinde, Giuseppe and Maria presenting the theme of next year's kick-off dinner theme: Rock!






This became a veeeeeeeeeeery long and cool night :-)



















At some point in time 3 Scottish guys appeared at our party and they obviously enjoyed celebrating with us...





























Later at night the restuarant kicked us out. Were we maybe too loud? So we made us on our way changing location.








After a great day/evening/night I was finally back at the hotel at 5 a.m.

I guess there was a purpose for having nothing on the programme for the next morning after Saturday night's party. Only a flight back to Oslo on which everyone was sleeping, I guess.

Thanks for this kick-off. That was great!