SNE Northern Europe

Placement organization

Name of organization: SNE Northern Europe
Town/city: Stockholm
Country: Zweden
Website: http://www.sne-northerneurope.eu

Name of student: David Wouters

Specialist area: ITMC
Placement period: 2016-2017

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Destination Management Company
Organization’s activities: – SNE Northern Europe is involved in the MICE travel sector (B2B). There is an account management department, in the account management department requests for conferences (venues), hotels, transport and other services are received from guests and will be handled.
– There is a project management department, when there are large projects from big companies, there is a big possibility that SNE will work with freelancers, which has resulted in positive experiences in the past.
– There is not really a sales department, but the CEO and VP often go to congresses or sales trips to promote Scandinavia and build relationships.
Target group of the organization: B2B, Leisure
Company culture: There is a CEO, then there is a Vice President, who works not on location but from another location, so there is a lot of Skype contact with her. Then there is the office- and main account manager. That´s the person I have been mainly working with. Moreover there were 6 freelancers here for a big project.
The company culture is both formal and informal. Almost every morning there was a morning conference call with the CEO, VP and account manager. Here we discussed events that happened and interesting new things, progress on projects and incentive groups and what needed to be done for the day. A lot of responsibility is given to the intern, and he/she must really learn by doing. Sometimes we went out for lunch together or did a typical classical fika (afternoon coffee/tea with pie), and there was also just a lot of informal talk
Number of employees: 3 (+ possibility of freelancers, there were 6 freelancers when I was here)
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? – I have been working in almost all departments of the organisation (detailed description in daily activities section)

Brief description of your daily activities: – Morning conference calls with the CEO, VP, account manager
– Afterwards handle requests with the account manager which means: replying to the client, being creative, finding solutions, find hotels, contact the hotels, arrange private transportation, restaurants, venues, activities, propose to the client, adjust itineraries, build up cost sheets (This part will last throughout the entire internship and will be the main activity of the intern)
– After the first 1,5 months I got more responsibility and went on hotel inspections, which the intern should arrange him/herself if allowed
– Make telephone calls
– Respond to e-mails
– Update and work with the new programme that the DMC has set up to easily handle requests in future
– Research and get more information regarding the MICE world and new trends
– During the time that I was here there was a big project that SNE Northern Europe had taken on from the US with approx. 8000 Americans visiting Scandinavia in June. Therefore it had hired 6 freelancers that I am currently working with, they gave me a lot of responsibility and involved me in the project. I have to be venue manager for one of the biggest and oldest venues of Stockholm for a few days in June, which means that every Thursday a few hundreds of Americans will come in and I have to do some event management and make sure that on location everything goes as arranged, transports go well, there is a good flow through, the staff and hosts are on location etc. But as this is very specific, this is not an activity that will be likely for the next intern, unless there is a new big project coming up.
Brief description of your company assignment: My company assignment was to analyse new upcoming markets for Scandinavia
This involved:
– Doing research on three markets that were upcoming
– Doing research on what´s important for them and all other aspects regarding seasonality, niches, accommodation preference etc.
– Build relations with the MICE, marketing, sales and marketing representatives in the countries
– Have conversations over Skype with people involved
– When handling requests from one of the countries, find out what is important for them

Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: There has been a lot of supervision, in other words, communication. Often the CEO and back-to-back account manager have sat with me and asked me how I experienced everything, what I had learned and if I was satisfied. They also gave me an evaluation often on how I was doing, what were working points and what my expectations were.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Independent, communicative, flexible, stress-proof, patient, listener
Additional company requirements for this placement? MS Office, (Excel would be helpful but not necessary)
English: Advanced
Spanish:
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages:

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? There are many Facebook groups (Stockholm student accommodation, Bostad Stockholm, Lappis) and I definitely recommend blocket.se (this is the main website for rooms, in Swedish but you can use google translate)
How did you go to work every day? Public transport

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? No
Do you need a work permit? No
How did you arrange the necessary documents: Didn´t need to arrange any documents
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents?
Did you need certain vaccinations? No
How long in advance?

Language course

Did you take a language course before you started your placement? No
Would you recommend to have a language course prior to this placement? No, you will learn Swedish quite fast, atleast to read it, with a little language feel, one can read Swedish quite fast.

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 120
Accommodation (monthly): € Depends where one lives, but should range around €500-€600
Local transport (monthly): € 85€ for SL Card (Stockholm public transport card)
General costs of living (monthly): € Food can be expensive (meat €6, chicken 7€) so probably around 250 per month (depends on eating habits), wine bottle is 8€ in the System Bolaget, wine in a cafe is 10€, beer is 7€. Entrance for a club is 15-20€, so going out in Sweden is quite expensive.
Costs of visa: € 0
Costs of work permit: € 0
What did the company pay for/to you? It depends very much on your work performance and what you are involved with but after the second month for me I got somewhere around 1000€ per month.
My company gave me a 2-month lunch card at the restaurant buffet next doors.
I got a public transport card for the first 3 months.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I hadn’t´t prepared myself for the culture as I thought it would be the same in some ways to the culture of the Netherlands.
I however wasn´t aware that this would be so different.
I am a very open-minded person who has travelled quite a lot, but I really needed some getting used to the Swedish culture.
From my personal opinion, I would say people in Sweden are much more reserved. There is even a documentary about that Swedish are the most autonomous people on the world, and my boss gave me a funny book on the ´Xenophobes guide to the Swedish culture´. In Sweden, the winters are cold, so until May, many people stay inside, don´t go out that much and are not that communicative. In all the time that I had been here and met people, I only made one Swedish friend, they have their own groups and are not so involved with foreigners. This counts the same for other Dutch friends that I have here, they have also told me that they hadn’t expected that Sweden would be so different and that they would be so reserved, so for me as a very communicative and social guy this was difficult to deal with.
They do however say once you made a Swedish friend, they are one for life.
It can be difficult for making friends, it will/can take time, so you have to be independent.
Also keep in mind that this country is very regulated, this can be both positive and negative, you for example need a Swedish ID for a lot of things even things like the gym.
Going out is 21+ or 23+

Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? No

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: davidwouters96@gmail.com

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: – Take note that Sweden is not a cheap country to live in, it´s way more expensive than the Netherlands
– Take note that for going out, almost all bars and clubs are 21+ and many also 23+
– Have cheap wines at Carmen restaurang
– If you are 21+ around May, Trädgården, a Berlin-vibish open-air club will open under the bridge near Slussen, this is the place to be, however go earlier than the opening time, as there will be a really long queu
– Before May you can go to Underbron if you are 23+, this is THE techno club
– During the winter months you can still go to Kungsträdgården where there you can go ice skating
– If you are 21+ visit F12 Terrassen, a nice place for drinks and there is music and DJ´s on a very original location
– Stockholm is a very fashionable city, so there are lots of nice Swedish vintage and designer boutiques
– For a nice high tea go to Wienercafé
– Visit mosebacken at sodra teatern once it gets better weather, this is a nice place for drinks with a view
– If you like techno visit Slakthuset (20+), an old slaughter house that has been turned into a techno venue
– Try to find a room at Lappis (this is near the university and there´s a FB page for it), here you have beautiful woods of nice walks and a beach, the student complexes has its own square with a nice restaurant, an own supermarket, there is bus transport in front of your door and it´s only 3 metro stops to the city centre for a reasonable price
– Take your time to explore the different islands that Stockholm has to offer
– Stockholm has beautiful nature, there are a lot of national parks and beautiful woods, I especially enjoyed this (visit Tyrestä national park)
– There is a theme park called Gröna Lund in the city centre
– Visit the vasa museum with a very big viking ship inside
– Enjoy Sunday drinks when it gets warmer at Rosendals Trädgård in Djurgarden, a very big garden in the city centre of Stockholm
– Visit the old town of Gamla stan, which has beautiful medieval houses and streets
– Shop in Norrmalm, the modern district of Stockholm
– Visit SoFo (Sodermalm Folkgungsgatan) this is the Brooklyn of Stockholm and is a little hipster-isa
– For fancy restaurants and beautiful views one can go to Ostermalm
– For beautiful coloured buildings and parks one can go to Vasastaden
– Once it gets better weather take a boat trip through the archipelago (book on stromma.se)
– Go to Skeppsholmen and Kastellholmen and Fjällgatan for beautiful views over Stockholm
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: See recommendations

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link