Mallory’s Thoughts
Our last visits in Stockholm were to Einride and Ericsson. Rein at Einride had us do a little case study, which I did not expect to do but it was nice that they wanted to hear what opportunities and challenges we thought Einride has. We all pretty much had the same concerns about safety, charging, lose of jobs, and so on. Like Spotify, I liked the names of the meeting rooms at Einride. We were in “Route 66” but there was also a meeting room called “Pacific Coast Highway” (my friends native to SoCal have to told me just to say PCH instead of saying the whole name). A tiny detail many people may not have noticed was the rainbow window decoration they put on the door at the entrance of their office. I can’t help but notice all the rainbow flags around Stockholm, it’s nice to see!
Ericsson has a long history that started in a kitchen in 1876! It was fun to visit the Ericsson Imagine Studio in Kista (pronounced Sheesta?). The company is working on so many projects “for a better, brighter tomorrow.” One was a cool esports platform, Hado, that’s Japanese (I don’t think they stated it, but I could read the Japanese on the video). Compared to the other visits, Ericsson seemed a bit…I’m not sure what the right word is, maybe cold? The other visits just seemed to be more inviting.
On our free day, I tried to visit as many museums as possible. I went to the National Museum, ABBA museum, Vrak (wreck) museum, the Viking museum, and the Vasa museum. I would pass on the Vrak museum and maybe the Viking museum, but the other three were definitely worth it! The Vasa was massive! I still wanted to try shopping a bit more, try good food, and see the City Hall. However, after roughly 10 hours of walking, my feet hurt and I didn’t feel like leaving the hotel again so I ate some protein bars and slowly got ready for bed, even though I really didn’t want to get up.
I really hope to visit Stockholm again soon! I have to admit Sweden wasn’t on my list of places to visit before this trip, but I will definitely visit again and recommend it to everyone I know. I already miss walking around the beautiful area near the Royal Palace and Gamla Stan…but now it’s time for our visit to Copenhagen.
Jamie’s Thoughts
Einride
Einride is a company looking to innovate freight transportation and technology. Their main focuses are digitalization of the current logistics management systems throughout the world, semi-autonomous and autonomous freight transport, and electric transport. I was impressed by their plan to help keep truckers employed as the need for truck drivers diminishes over the next 20-50 years. I feel like I rarely hear plans to keep an labor populations of disappearing jobs employed. For someone who grew up in a city that went from being a mill town, to a factor town, to a services town, this is very hopeful. I was even more impressed by the marketing campaign they have going. This YouTube video is both directed at the exact populations it needs to be, while being just as hopeful as I mentioned before. As Mallory mentioned above, we did a case study while at the visit. I’ll touch more on that on a different post.
Ericsson
The Ericsson visit was rather special for me as it was a good reminder of my career shift. I realized sitting there, listening to their spiel, that the shift was the correct move for me. I usually try to ask any meaningful questions that come to mind on these visits, but I managed to walk away forgetting to complain ask this one question. With all of the advances in technology, the move to 5G, etc., why is cross compatibility between countries so frustrating? I got a Swedish eSim when I first arrived to Stockholm, and although it was expensive I was glad to have freedom of movement and communication (including full use of google translate) throughout my trip. I thought I was buying an eSim compatible with traveling across Europe. Once our Scandinavian adventure was done, that proved to be wrong. I was able to get through Amsterdam okay without much single, but I was panicky until I finally found a cafe with Wi-Fi. This seems very backwards to me, and I’m sure the gentlemen at Ericsson could have easily explained it with a word or two (my guess would be profit and legislation), but wow, it’s 2023.
Enough complaining, I was amazed by the technology advances that have occurred in such a short period of time and am eager to see what comes next.
On our last free day in Stockholm I was able to visit the Vasa, the Spirit Museum, and watch a bit of the Stockholm Marathon. My last marathon was in 2018, and my last race in general was in 2021. I really need to get the running shoes on again. I was surprised by the late start of the marathon. The weather was perfect for running around 8am, but the race didn’t start until Noon. It wasn’t sweltering at that time, but certainly didn’t have the beautiful temperature of the morning. This fact didn’t stop me from putting my email in for a reminder of when registration begins next year.
The Vasa was an incredible experience, and the Spirit Museum made me realize that Mallört is “enjoyed” by more than just the people of Chicago. These Swedish really love a bit of self-torture.
