Finland. Third instalment. (Not one for vegetarians.)

I ended my last entry, as I was being called for dinner.  That was a very interesting experience.  I had tried reindeer meat (to the disdain of some readers; I know and apologise) for the first time here in Tampere and saw it again on the menu for dinner that evening.  I recalled that the presentation and taste were exceptional and did not mind at all having some more of this gravadlax-pastrami hybrid.

It turned out to be nothing of the sort!  I was presented with a brick of unseasoned, potentially reconstituted and perhaps falsely-labelled meat (protein) on a bed of partially mashed yet as equally unseasoned potato (carbohydrates)… the representatives from the vegetable family that normally make an appearance in the form of fresh vegetables had their understudy gherkins fill in for the occasion.

Needless to say I politely played with my food and left the vast majority for the pigs.

On a better note, yesterday’s conference sessions were great.  I attended sessions on employees’ psychological contracts and the experiences of a select population of doctoral students and supervisors.  Their experiences were real eye-openers - from admissions of having made life-long friends (between supervisor and supervised) to stories of never-ending conversations based on exchanging and enriching ideas… quite inspiring really, especially having heard it said with such sincerity and joviality.

Last night saw the last of the social events scheduled in as part of the conference, where the party of (after a few in the hotel bar!) particularly merry researchers took a boat to nearby Viking Island in the Pyhäjärvi (poo-ai-yahr-vee) for dinner and socialising.  …and I can assure you this time, with filet of a record-breaker salmon and fresh vegetables on the menu, that the cuisine was certainly up to scratch!

Tomorrow, after another day in Helsinki, we’ll be on our way home and should arrive back in blighty before dinner time.

: )

Day of the until-now-dreaded presentation!

Since I was a very young age, I have always been first on any alphabetical list (except when I was in the Fourth Form at school – about 9 or 10 years old - when ’Abrahams’ knocked me [Adrien-Kirby] off my perch) and this year’s IABS conference was no exception.  I was down to present first at 8.30am this morning (6.30am GMT). 

Although there were moments in the past few days when my nerves had taken a more disabling grip on me, the hours/minutes leading up to my ‘time’ were filled with calm and cheerful banter with my colleagues.  Good sign.

The presentation went smoothly (I promise that I had every intention of putting a video of it up on here for you to see but I had cunningly left my camera on the plane, to give myself an alibi!!) and the criticism afterwards was constructive and well-founded.  That, coupled with conversations with some awe-inspiring academics afterwards, fuelled my research in this area… it’s always good to be well-received!

I spent the rest of today attending various other presentations and symposia looking at further developments of the academic research in this area and, in other words, ‘where knowledge building (and distribution!) should go next’!  Very interesting it was to hear that the academic guru (the I one I was star-struck by yesterday) supporting collaboration with the Arts, in order to gain further insight into the anthropological and historical contributions that could be made to the field of Business and Society.  I’ll be sure to revisit that seed in a few months now it’s been planted in the back of my mind!

Right, I’ve been summoned for dinner!  Hope you’re all well and thanks again for reading!

Finland… first instalment

Hey everybody!

Ok, so, I’m finally here in Finland, the land of bridges and almost uninterrupted daylight!  So far, it has been a great experience.  The flight brought a very interesting conversation with my allotted ‘random’ person to sit next to me.  His name was Michael and he was an Executive Coach, whose capabilities to help top level managers improve their performance (by unlocking the potential from within their mind) are worth, his current contract as an example, 12,000 pounds for eight one-hour sessions!  Why on Earth didn’t I do psychology!  I travelled with my officemate, Stefan, who has a fear of flying and Michael said that we should have told him this before the pilot started his landing sequence, as he could have indeed dome something about it… ho hum…

Last night was fairly uneventful except for my staying on the phone with Helsinki Airport representatives and various officials of British Airways in my attempt to retrieve my digital camera that I had so skilfully left on my seat in the aircraft and only realising once I had sat in the taxi on the way to the hotel!  …anyhoo, it was my first experience of ‘night’ being more of a late evening before the sun started to rise again and that was pretty cool!

Stefan and I woke up fairly early to see the sights of Helsinki including the largest Orthodox church in Eastern Europe: the Uspenski.  Very grand.  The receptionist of the hotel also felt the need to send us to four other churches, but we onlt managed two before taking the short boat journey to Suomilinna Fortress.

No sooner had we arrived back on the mainland was it time to begin the 90-minute journey north-west up to Tampere, where Stefan and I (along with various other academics) will be presenting our research…  We arrived safely in Tampere and discovered that not only was our hotel literally across the road but also that once again we had landed on our feet with regard to the quality of hotel – superb.  If anyone is taking a trip to Helsinki and/or Tampere, I’ll gladly give you the details, just ask!

It was funny (but quite sad) earlier at the drinks reception.  There was a very emminent and established Professor who popularised the term ’stakeholder’ in the early 1980’s… every Ph.D. student has read his seminal papers and book… I actually found myself starstruck!  Certainly not a trait I thought I personally would exhibit!

So, that’s about it so far apart from the usual eating and sleeping.  I’m now off to practise my presentation with Stefan in preparation for tomorrow.  I’m presenting at 08.30 (06.30 GMT), so, if you happen to be awake at that time, feel free to wish me luck!

Thanks for reading and I’ll tell you how it all goes soon!

Trip to Finland

Hey everybody!  I’ve just created a new category, Academic Conferences, which you can click on at the foot of this page, and here’s where you can find out all about my trip to Finland, which is my first conference!  The run-up, preparation as well as vlogs etc. whilst we’re out there are/will be here.  It’s to a city north of Helsinki called Tampere for my first academic conference: IABS 2008 (you can also click here for the flyer).  Pretty nerve wracking experience, as I’m creating this page with exactly one week and six days to go and still have as yet… erm, nothing to say!  Such is the excitement (aka. pressure) of doctoral research!

If you’d like to find out more about the conference and what topics are under discussion, just click on ‘IABS 2008′ in the previous paragraph.

Thanks again for reading!