Skellefteå
Skellefteå Day 1- The Recovery
After a full day of 24 hours of traveling, we completed our first task of the trip: finding the SFT airport. We had begun our travel day at LAX at 2AM and made our way to the airport for our first flight at 6AM to NYC. We then took a flight from NYC to Stockholm and then to Skellefteå. Needless to say, we were quite surprised by the size of the airport. Thankfully, our bags made it safe and sound! We then took our shuttle from the airport and were on our way to our first hotel stay of the trip! We were able to begin with the trip and our grand adventure in our first stop Skellefteå! We began our stay at the Wood Hotel which was extremely beautiful and fascinating. The Wood Hotel is also known as the Sara Cultur Hous. We spent our first day getting food at the restaurant downstairs and enjoying the views the city had to offer. We spent a majority of the first day battling jetlag but were excited and ready to begin with the trip!
Northvolt Ett
On Monday, May 29th, we visited Northvolt Ett which is located in Skellefteå, Sweden! As this was our first business visit in Sweden there was a lot of anticipation and Northvolt did not disappoint. Our prior knowledge of Sweden is that the country prides itself on being one of the first countries to be fully sustainable. To have Northvolt in the north of Sweden is a huge step for them achieving this goal. Not only is the company helping the country become 100% sustainable, but they are also adding thousands of jobs to the industry and the city of Skellefteå.
Northvolt is a company that produces sustainable batteries for sectors like automobiles, energy storage, industrial, and portable industries. With over 4,000 employees and plans of expansion this company is determined to be net zero by 2050. The way they are planning to reach this goal is by recycling, sourcing, and manufacturing in house. This is a commitment to sustainability through all activities which attracts many partnerships with companies like BMW, Volvo, Siemens, and Scania.
The city of Skellefteå has grown exponentially within the past decade and is expected to increase its population by 7,000 by 2030. This is huge growth for a city of only 45,000 currently. A huge part of the attraction of Skellefteå has been due to the Northvolt plant. The reason why the company chose to have Northvolt in Skellefteå is because the city has access to a lot of renewable energy, an opportunity to acquire a large plot of land, close access to transportation infrastructure, and active interest from the public and municipality. The company realizes there is a huge demand for energy and creating this one-of-a-kind sustainable battery is a way to solve this problem while helping the planet.
North Kingdom
For our second business visit of the day after Northvolt, we made our way to North Kingdom. North Kingdom is a global business design studio that helps companies such as Google, LEGO, EA and Supercell create experiences, services and products that help to play a meaningful role in people’s lives. North Kingdom was founded on creativity, innovation, hard work, and creative play with humble beginnings but with global ambition. At North Kingdom, we had the pleasure of hearing from the Creative Director Jakob Nylund. The company was founded and developed during a time where there was no digital production and had created black pen on their own. One of the first projects that the company had worked on was get the glass which was an online board game. Some of the first clients they had worked previously with included Lucas Film, Disney, Netflix, Meta, and
Google. Jacob had discussed and displayed how the company had also worked and developed the introduction for Netflix when the application is opened with its animation. He discussed how the company also proposed a ribbon logo for the company, but it was not approved. Unfortunately, Netflix copied their preliminary design a few years later. North Kingdom had offices in Los Angeles and found that it would be easier to create a satellite office in the states. Jakob discussed how the company ran into issues of their brand awareness and how they perceived their brand to be much bigger than it was. They ran into many issues with their office in Los Angeles, many of which included cultural differences, market competition, building local connections, acquiring talent, cost of living and business expenses, and time zone differences. Because of these issues, the company found it very difficult to persist and continue their business in Los Angeles. With constant competition from other competitors, they found themselves to be a small fish in a big pond, where Skellefteå they were a big fish in a small pond. Unfortunately, the pandemic hit, and the company was forced to close its Los Angeles office in 2020. North Kingdom overall was a very fascinating business visit! Jakob provided many insights into the company and into his other projects that he was working on. We loved the product Ogín for its sleek design and creative innovation. We loved Ogín so much we opened the bottle with Dr. Myhr the night of our karaoke!
In Conclusion
Overall, we enjoyed our first official day in Skellefteå! It was an amazing experience, and we were able to spend the night with a beautiful dinner accompanied by a walk at the river! We loved the scenic views and enjoyed the meal we were able to share that night!Appetizer
