Like I said in my last post: I’ve been attending The Norwegian Computer Society’s (NCS) annual meeting (or general assembly) this weekend. It has been an interesting, constructive meeting with significant discussions and conclusions topped off by cultural and historical experiences. I won’t bother you with a full and detailed rapport from the previous three days, but rather share some of highlights with my usual personal flare:
NCS, the largest IT-Professional network in Norway, is an open, independent forum and a independent self-financed society. We include around 11 000 members from 9 districts from all of Norway and with approximately 50 work groups (regarding subjects from Business Intelligence through Knowledge Management, Innovation & Entrepreneurship to Software testing and Semantic Web).
My regular readers know I call myself a network evangelist, so to meet 80 representatives from all over Norway once a year is of course a thrill. Some of them are old friends and colleges, some are new, but everyone is eager to share experiences and knowledge beneficial for the development of the society, as well as their business of course. I mean, everyone involved are volunteers working for the society, but also business men and woman. So to summarize it in my saying, we are networking ‘in mutual trust for equal opportunities’.
This year we were the hosts here in Oslo and the location was the famous Holmenkollen Park hotel near to the Holmenkollen ski jump. A Hotel which lives and breaths tradition. Let me give you an idea from a picture I took of the staff entrance (click all pics to enlarge!):
To set the proper mood from the beginning of the meeting, we had a special a cultural performance. You might know that the new Oslo Opera House opened this weekend (I will of course get back to that later!) and here we had one of Norway’s youngest (Grete S. B. Borud, 15 years!) and most successful ballet dancer:
Communication, interaction and relationship building is of course crucial for the development of an efficient and attractive organisation like NCS. Meetings and socialising between the formal agenda is therefore important, but we also have some team work tasks during the meeting. Let me share a couple with you and maybe it can give you an idea for your own use. Its unpretentious, but makes quite an impression:
A: Divide in groups and have them make the tallest tower with spaghetti and marshmallows:
Their creativeness is divine
B: Give them plastic pipes and make a rhythm orchestra:
The Big Bang Drumcircles gave us an unique feeling of relation rhythmic work. Each pipe size owner was told to make their own rhythm and combined we sounded dynamite :-)
Sorry for the quality of the pics, but the indoor lightening in the meeting room wasn’t the best for my Nokia Mobile phone!
Even more important: Stay tuned for more networking and other cultural adventures from my weekend!
Cool! That seems to be a lot of fun. BTW, I noticed the snow on the rooftops. Doesn’t it ever get warm there? :-)
It is hot as a furnace here in Pune now (and in most of India).
Very interesting Renny and what a fun team building. I could ‘steal’ the idea of having marshmallows & spaghetti the next time I have a kids’ party ehehehhe…..
Thank you for a wonderful introduction :D Luv to Diane too ya!
i want to play with those drum sticks. they look like a lot of fun!
Just dropping by to say Hi and Best Wishes. Vincent
Oh I love that building! The architecture seems so unconventional to me… :)
And what a great socializing party u guys hv!
What a lovely building that is Renny. I would be happy to walk around and around it!
What a great report from the Meeting last weekend. I was there only on Friday, and met many interesting people from South to North in Norway. The Spagetti Marsmellow “game” was indeed very funny and challenging, as the spagetti broke and broke.
I think the photos shows clearly enough what you did want us to see.
That’s an interesting way to promote team building! Looks fun too.
Dearest Friend,
Get yourself listed on http://millionbloglist.com/index.php?title=Main_Page!
I have to tell my other friends, will come back to comment on your post. Sorry, I hope you don’t think I’m spamming. hehe…..
*throws Renny a rose*
You IT professionals sure know how to have a good time! Ha!
Work and play!
I am sure you met a lot of interesting people!
we’re also looking for a teambulding venue here for our ManCom…i’ll suggest we go to Norway! :P
Such neat ice-breakers too. We’ve done teavher workshops using similar ideas…we built a structure from toothpicks and thawed frozen peas!!
Hello Renny,
Very interesting! I am impressed at the entertainment: ballet? Exquisite!!! :D
The place seems to be cozy too…but the view of snow lowered my body temperature *Bbrrrrrr*!
Have fun!
Cheers
That’s very entertaining and fun show. Keep going!
Fruity
I have fond memories of that hotel, Renny. :) You should go to the Opera and study the interior as well as the views from the rooftop.
Hi
I saw your blog entry and it got back a lot of memories of Norway. I would travel to Oslo for client meetings. I do not eat sea food, so I could not try most of typical Norwegian food, but during my visits, I used to stock up on Lefsa’s. They were my favourite food, and yes Bris :)
I will look forward to more posts :)
Pratibha
STILL having fun! Our middle and high school students do things like the spaghetti/marshmallow adventure! Sometimes they have to build bridges using only toothpicks or something like that – then they test them by who’s bridge can hold the most pennies without collapsing! It’s fun! Glad you are enjoying yourself!
Looks like soooo much fun! I want to be an IT genius!
Cxx
May I attend such a funny team building as a visitor from faraway?
I hope I were a member of you guys:)
RennyBA
Your welcome any time iWalk!
Spaghetti & Marshmallow construction! What a brilliant idea – my son will love this so we’re going to see what we can come up with at home! ;)
Pretty much you had a great team building activities and yes with one of the pictures I saw, I agree with you.They really are creative individuals!
Roxanne
A team building program will allow employees to overcome their differences in order to come together with a specific goal in mind to achieve the results that are required.