Polish ICT companies’ delegation sailing in the beautiful Western archipelago of Finland
A sailing cruise around the Finnish arhipelago in July was the dream for 29 Polish ICT delegates from 25 companies, all belonging to the ITCorner network in Wrocław. This became reality thanks to the planning and cooperation between ITCorner and Turku Science Park Ltd, both parties in the European ICT Alliance.
The cruise started from Dalsbruk and Kasnäs where the group rented five beautiful sailing boats for a week. The delegation moored at the islands of Vänö, Borstö, Björkö, Bengtskär, Gullkrona, Fårö, Hanko and Rosala. The weather was just as you would expect from a Finnish summer: Water around 21°C and the air around 20– 25°C with various winds making the sailing both fun and challenging.
So where is the catch with a trip like this, which was the 10th in the row, for the Polish and Finnish delegates? Besides the leisure and the sailing experience there are some other important things to learn.
“Networking and functioning in teams being the most important according to my opinion. You also get to know people and cultures in a very different way,” says Michael Lindholm, Network manager at Turku Science Park Ltd.
Which songs do people like? What is the sauna about? How do people think about sustainability? How does the war in Ukraine affect the business? What are the personnel costs? What are the biggest ICT trends? The questions and answers constantly flowed and flourished because they flipped the crews in the boats.
The sailing adventure was a success!
The Polish delegates were wowed by the nature, the endless number of beautiful islands (around 44,000!), the great services and the Finnish way of respecting the nature. The sauna was also quite an experience: there were 31 persons in a 12-person sauna singing Polish songs, which was fun!
“The archipelago surprised us with the beautiful light, long evenings and the fun of sailing safely among the islands. The extreme impression when mooring to Bengtskär, thanks to the kind help from a local from the island of Hitis with his Targa boat, was something that I will remember for a long time,” says Michał Zacher from Vazco.
Arthur Skrzyszowski from Sail Performance, the head of the trip, adds: “We had fun and the trip also caused new challenges for me, sailing a few meters from Islands still being on the boat way. Boat ways and routes are clearly marked on the plotters and safe once you get used to them.”
European ICT Alliance’s new contract signed
The delegation’s long-term goal was to sign a new contract for the European ICT Alliance on the trip, so they booked a conference room in Hangö Regatta, where the group also ran an Open Table discussion. The Alliance contract will first be in place between the Turku, Gdansk, Wroclaw and Berlin areas, adding new areas in 2023. Turku and Wroclaw were the first to sign and Jan Markiewicz from the Polish embassy joined them.
“It was great to see the Alliance initiative getting to a new dimension, we totally support this. This alliance makes the fundamentals for business development in the ICT companies that are involved with the networks,” says Jan.
“In Turku we already have Sofokus, Lingsoft, Resimator, Benete and other companies that support the Alliance. The next to sign is the Gdansk area with Interizon where we arrange a networking trip on 5.-7.10.2022, ” concludes Michael Lindholm.
Contact info: Michael Lindholm