Let the Timetravel begin...

Wanna know about my time at Timetravels? Read more...

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#dubai @ #wtm

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My new desk at Tampere office ♡ Mitä sotkuisempi pöytä, sen tehokkaampi olen! :D

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Magento and other challenges

What a week! Everyone is back from holiday and over is the silent peace at the office. Here people are discussing the trips for next semester, there are people meeting about shooting Lapland videos and at an other place about sports trips. And me in the middle :D one meeting followed by the next one and in between almost no time to breath. But it was fun, I learned a lot and finally got a lot done. Two trips are already online, ready to be booked :)

That was probably the most interesting thing this week, putting the trips online. We are working with a system called Magento and it is everything else than easy when you see it for the first time. But I bit me through and managed to handle it myself already after a short while :) What a success :D  But after what seemed like a 60 hour week I'm pretty tired and don't bore you with the details of Magento ;)

How ever, it was an eventful and successful week and I'm soon leaving into my well-earned weekend :) Less then two weeks and I will report from the Tampere office! :)

Happy weekend everyone!

PS: One thing I have been working on this week: How to reach the Germans ;) Tips and tricks highly appreciated! :D

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Finnish Holiday Season

2/3 of my internship are over already :-O only one month to go, how did that happen :D Time is flying in here, especially now that the weather is so great! Working in the morning and spending the afternoon/evening at the beach :) That is definitely a plus in Helsinki!  

This month has been super quiet at work. It has been a while that I saw a customer and most of my colleagues are on holiday still for another week. But in the beginning of August we will have a full house again with theme-fridays and lunch breaks that I don't have to spend alone.

I still wonder how the Finnish economy can survive these two, three month of holidays. It seems like in July no one was working. The trains and trams are empty and so are most of the offices. When sending out emails, I mostly got an "I'm on holiday and will answer your email when I'm back in August" email back. I understand that the summer here is shorter than in central and southern Europe and that everyone wants to enjoy the nicest time on holiday, but sorry - shutting down everything for one month, companies run by interns and students? :-O And why does everyone go on holidays for 4 weeks in a row? Can't they take two weeks off like "normal" people and the other two weeks some other time? I didn't find out yet if it is a must to take 4 weeks off at a time, or if people actually want that long holidays. I would be horrified! 4 weeks without anything to do? I can't hang out in the summer cottage or on Mallorca for 4 weeks! :-O Please never send me on holidays for 4 weeks in a row! :D 

Enjoy the rest of the summer!

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Summer is here :)

So finally it seems like the summer is here :) Yeees I know, some of you would still not call it summer, but for me it has all I need. Sun, 20 degrees, green grass and from today on I have a balcony where I can sit in the sun during the day :) - Oh wait, I'm working :-O well small detail ;) luckily I have quite flexible working times. Since I'm moving this weekend to the new apartment in Tampere I was at the office early in the morning so that I can leave a bit earlier today. Here no problem :)

This week was really busy at work. I started looking into a whole new section of trips - study trips aka. excursions. This is a really interesting field and maybe even the most interesting I have created so far. Connection a trip with actually learning something, learning about the culture, history, art, tourism or business culture of a country while enjoying as well free time activities is a pretty cool thing, I think. So I created itineraries for different kinds of study groups to different kinds of destinations and researched what activities can be done, which museums to visit, which companies to visit and what kind of lecture to offer. The association of German Higher Education Institutions has already expressed their interest and I really hope we can offer these kinds of trips. Especially to Finnish Language Students a short trip to Helsinki and around would be possibly really great. 

But while waiting for answers from all directions, I'm now gonna move into a new giant great awesome fantastic apartment with my love <3

Wish you all a splendid weekend as always ;)

Let's timetravel!

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Learning every day

Last week we had a Meeting with two nice guys from a company that's selling CRM (Customer relationship management) solutions. You won't believe what all is possible nowadays to manage your customers and customer communication. I was flashed :D Now I know why I get so many emails :D I always sign up somewhere and then they I get bombard by emails like "Update your profile" or "check out Hotels in Rovaniemi" or "See where your friends are traveling to". Well they always goes to the trash bin right away in my case, but it really seems to work for some people and they jump on that train and get even more and more emails after that. Now I know what the system is behind that. It can all be programmed. Depending on how you respond to the previous email, you get an other one with a specific topic and so on. The companies can see, if you read the email, what and where you clicked on and then you get customized emails. 

That was the shocking fact. But it has also great opportunities for companies to market efficiently and only through the channels the customer chooses to be contacted through. It makes the usability for both providers and customers easier to respond to each other in the most effective and convenient way. And in the end, if I sign up somewhere, I am somehow interested in a way and it gives me the possibility to choose if they infos end up in the trash or if I read them when there is really something interesting.

Some wisdom at the beginning of the week ;)

And btw WE ARE WORLD CHAMPIONS! :D

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That's where the fun starts

After a month of research and a sometimes a bit longsome process of getting familiar with the product and procedure, I'm finally where I wanted to be: in touch people :) Being in contact with possible partners, customers and authorities, handling requests and planning a stand on international travel fairs - that's where the fun starts :) 

I'm not a pencil pusher (haha that word is hilarious in english :D "Bürohengst" in german). I like to work with people! Exhibiting on a travel fair would be actually awesome. And there are a lot in Europe and Asia that would be super interesting. Is it too early to dream about going to Madrid or Shanghai? ;) I'd be definitely up for that! But for now I recruit new partners and customers from my lovely Mac <3 ;)

Let the fun begin!

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After Holiday Feeling

I'm back from my short "Juhannus-holidays". 5 days free and 3 days at the office - what a week :) After I had a great long midsummer weekend in Tampere, it was not too easy to get used to the office again ;) In the mornings it was harder than usual to get up, I needed soooo long time in the bathroom, that I usually missed the first train and had to wait for the next one :D And at work? Hmm I felt a little bit confused this week. I don't know if it was the work itself or just the after-holiday-symptoms... Maybe both. I was trying to write a formal invitation in English and noticed that this is not working at all :D I know perfectly fine how to write super formally in German, but in English I have unfortunately absolutely no clue :D Good though, that the invitation is meant for German customers and I have to write in in English first only for my colleagues to understand what I'm writing about ;) After the content is approved I can move back to safe ground and translate it proper formal German :) 

The other thing I've been doing was going through the ITB Berlins exhibitor list and check all the German travel agencies. The ITB Berlin is quite famous, in fact it is the biggest travel fair in the world. That means there were quite many exhibitors to go through - over 10.000 actually ;) 

Thank god it's Friday! And that not, because it's weekend, but because it's Blog and Friday-Presentation time. And of course our special Friday - this week "Smoothy-Friday" :) Always the highlight of the week!!! 

Let's make today ridiculously amazing! :D

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#Timetravels #Intern #workingdesk

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#mmfutis #kisastudio #hervanta

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Time flies!

Three weeks I have been working here at Timetravels already. How the time flies... I remember the first days, when I was overwhelmed by the amount of people in Finland's capital and didn't really know what to expect at work. Now I already feel like an old hand ("old bunny" how we say in German :D).

In one of my first meetings, our boss said "You know we are a company, so we have to make profit, but profit is not everything. First of all we want to make our customers and our employees happy." I was almost laughing, because I thought it was a joke. Now I know it wasn't. Ice cream or cup cake Fridays are just one way to reward the stuff. Every Friday we present what we have done during the week and the others can ask questions, give feedback or come up with new ideas. Our work is appreciated :) 

My project is also starting to assume shape. I am creating a Lapland package for German adults. Who hasn't ever dreamed to meet Santa Claus or ride a reindeer sledge, just like him? Yes Mallorca is surely a nice place, but there is so much more out there and to see stunning nature, beautiful landscape and different cultures you don't need to climb up the Himalaya. It is here just around the corner, for example in Finnish Lapland. And it is my job to bring it to Germany, or actually to bring Germany to Lapland ;) In the last three weeks I learned what it actually takes and what all is behind such a trip, what needs to be organized and be thought of. But now the idea is pretty much ready and can start working on a marketing package. That is gonna be something new and interesting for me. 

But now I start into my Midsummer holidays and will enjoy the Finnish midnight sun in South Finland (yes for me Tampere is still South Finland even though the Finns probably wouldn't agree :P)

Hyvää Juhannusta kaikille!

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Just a start

I'm almost graduated, only my thesis left and I got the most awesome internship I could have wished for, with a chance to stay, at least for a while. That meant moving to Helsinki for the summer, away from my friends, away from the old and familiar. I can't deny that it was a bit scary to leave the good old student life behind. Waking up every morning, a must to leave the bed, no "oh maybe not today, I still have two times I can miss the class", what if I hate going to work, if I have to drag myself there every day? What if I don't know what to do, if I'm not good in what they ask me to do? All day in the office, staring at the screen, is that something for me? - I'm thinking too much, as always  

What happend instead was, that I was excited to finally go to work, to do important stuff, not only studying for myself, but to actually move something, contribute something to the world - okay now I'm maybe exaggerating  but I was taken to the Timetravels-team like a full and worthy team member, someone that does important work for the company. I'm not used for making coffee, except of for myself (there is an awesome coffee machine in the office!) and I'm taking care of my own project, being independent, I can express my own opinion and I'm heard. The admosphere at the office is great, everyone is friendly and helpful and when I don't know what is the best next step I just ask and get help. Every afternoon before we leave, we talk about what we achieved and how to proceed the next day. And I wake up every morning, usually before my alarm, get up and get ready for work - with pleasure! No dragging, no presure, no dislike, just looking forward to what the day will bring (including the great coffee )

In this spirit, let the Timetravel begin :)