Sunday 8th March 2015
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| Happy to be with past and present colleagues at the Yoigo party at this year's MWC |
Hi everyone,
It’s not often
I write my weekly post away from home.
Today is special. I am writing it from my friend Anne’s wooden cottage
in Salo, a town some 100km from Helsinki.
It is her birthday tomorrow but she is celebrating today and right now
is making all sorts of delicious Finnish food for a family gathering later this
afternoon. So this is the perfect moment
to write my blog.
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| Anne's lovely typical Finnish house |
I am now in
Finland but last Monday I was off to Barcelona for this year’s Mobile World
Congress (MWC) to take part in the PR activities I had planned there for Yoigo
(a big party on Monday night and an important press conference on Wednesday
morning). These were big projects I had
been working on with my PR and events agencies’ teams for months and in a way
it was a miracle I got to go. When I had
my accident and broke my ankle, I really thought I wouldn’t be able to go to
either Barcelona or Finland. But no, I
made it in the end, although I took one crutch and was as careful as possible
not to tire my leg out. In Barcelona I
mostly stayed put in my hotel only venturing out to my events and for
meals. I did not go to the actual
Congress where the approximately 90.000 delegates walked miles and miles around
the fair along endless carpeted passages.
So no, I never got to see Samsung’s new S6 or to see or hear Mark Zuckerberg
or see the new wearables, all three probably being the main highlights of the
MWC.
I went on the
same train as my great friend and ex Nokia colleague, Julio and
I would come
back with him too. He was to help with
my luggage and to get on and off the train.
As soon as we reached Barcelona, I went straight to my hotel to do some
work and he went to the congress. We met
up later for lunch at Cal Pinxo and sat in the sun enjoying our fideua (a sort
of paella made with vermicelli).
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| With Julio at Cal Pinxo on Monday in Barcelona |
That night was
the Yoigo party. It took place at
Acontraluz, a lovely chalet sort of place with terraces and gardens and big
lounges inside. Thank goodness it was
big enough for the amount of people who came – we reckon some 250. Each year the Yoigo party at MWC gets bigger
and bigger and more and more popular. I
have a feeling we are the only company who puts on a party for all their
colleagues, ex colleagues, shopkeepers, bloggers, distributors, manufacturers,
press and general friends. I was on my
crutch all night and don’t usually enjoy my own parties but on Monday night I
was in my element with so many familiar faces to greet. The photo illustrating this week’s post is
with my ex-boss Johan, a colleague Urban and one of my favourite ex colleagues
Javier. The party was themed a “casino”
evening and there was black jack, roulette and other table games which we all
enjoyed. I was particularly pleased too
to see my ex Nokia colleagues: Miquel, Susana, Cristina, Matti, Marc, Pepe and
of course Julio. Here we are
together. It’s not a good photo but I
love the moment.
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| With some of my ex Nokia Spain colleagues at the Yoigo party in Barcelona |
I left the
party, like Cinderalla, before midnight as my foot was aching badly but I heard
later it went on till past 6 in the morning!
You can see the full collection of photos of our party here.
Tuesday was my
quietest day, the in-between day with no event on. But I still had to work as we had to finalise
the press materials for the next day’s press conference. But I ventured out for lunch which was to be
at El Merendero de la Mari, next to Cal Pinxo, by Pau de la Vila with the girls
from my events agency, QuintaEsencia. They turned up with more Yoigo friends
who are distributors of our company and very close to us all. So lunch turned to be a long affair where
because I was having such a good time I completely forgot about my leg. Here is
a photo of us leaving the restaurant.
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| Lunch with colleagues in Barcelona on Tuesday |
I had a small
mission to go on before heading back to my hotel, The Gallery on Rossiñol, just
off the Paseo de Gracia. I wanted to go
to H+M to see some jeans that I had read people, models, etc raving about on
internet. I was in search of what they
referred to as “shaping denim” jeans. I
tried on the dark blue ones and wow they were the perfect fit. I then bought the black ones too in the same
size and didn’t bother trying them on.
Unfortunately when I got back to the hotel and tried them on they turned
out be too big. I always prefer too big
to too small! At some stage I shall have
to return them and get a smaller size.
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| H+M skinny shaping jeans, they are very flattering |
So what did I
wear for dinner that night you will ask? The new jeans of course. I have worn them now nearly every day since I
bought them. Dinner that night was the
most relaxing evening in Barcelona as it was with colleagues and my PR and
events’ teams. Here is a photo of us all
around the table. It’s a fuzzy one but
it’s all I have. In my experience when
you ask a waiter or a fellow diner to take a photo at a restaurant the quality
is never good. I’m sure you all
agree. We could have done a selfie, but
I am not a great selfie fan. We actually
had dinner at Acontraluz where we had the party the night before. That was a good thing because I was able to
pick up my coat which I had left behind after the party. You see the weather was so good in Barcelona,
reaching over 20c at midday that a coat was hardly necessary.
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| Dinner at Acontraluz on Tuesday night in Barcelona |
Wednesday was
my big day and it turned out to be huge in many ways. At 10 am we were holding a press conference
in the middle of town at Tuset. You see
Yoigo is not present at the congress itself but gets on the band wagon by doing
events offsite. That means we leverage
the presence of press and bloggers but are not officially present. I should add we provide the organisers with
the mobile phone frequencies which gives us many passes so we get to go and
invite our distributors, bloggers etc.
If you do a press conference offsite you are at a disadvantage as the
press are all onsite and have many events to go. So you never know how many will turn up at
your press conference. However we had
important news or we thought we did – in the announcement of an amazing new
tariff – an all you can eat voice and data flat tariff for 29 euros/month
including taxes. In order to get the
press to come we did a lot of lobbying before and our efforts were paid off
when some 40 attended.
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| It was full house at our press conference in Barcelona on Wednesday |
It was lovely to see my Swedish colleague Linda at our press conference. She is in charge of TeliaSonera's activities at the MWC and we had been in touch all year. However, for one reason or another, although we were staying at the same hotel we just hadn't managed to see each other until then. Afterwards we both sneaked away for a well deserved and quiet cup of coffee together before we had to part our ways.
As head of
communications for Yoigo it was my responsibility to make as much noise as
possible in the media from the moment of the announcement until the advertising
campaign started on 10th March.
So when just 15 minutes after the announcement we began to be Trending
Topic on Twitter (TT means in the top ten of the most commented subject in
Spain or wherever at one moment of time).
We started off as number ten and then rose to seven, six and five being
TT for more than 10 hours. That was a
record for us and something to be proud of as no other operator or company was
TT during the MWC. Only Samsung with its
S6 announcement was TT, so I am proud to have achieved that being such a small
company (just 100 employees with 4 million customers) and not even being
present at the congress. Here is the
photo to prove we made it to number 5 on TT.
You can see the rest of the photos of our press conference here.
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| With my lovely Swedish colleague Linda at our press conference on Wednesday |
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| I was so proud that Yoigo was TT for 10 hours on Wednesday during the MWC |
All during the
rest of the day and on my way home on the train with Julio, I monitored the
online clippings and tweets and posts in FB and was so happy to see that the
headlines were positive and that customers were euphoric. You see the tariff is unbeatable in the
Spanish market. We were the first
operator to launch an all you can eat voice tariff and now we are the first
again to launch an all you can eat voice and data (up to 20 gigas) tariff. If
our customers were euphoric with the tariff, I was euphoric with the social
networks and media coverage. By Friday
morning we had over 300 online articles and nearly 40 print articles. In fact I just googled “Yoigo MWC 2015 and
found 57.000 results! It wasn’t all
plain sailing though. Suddenly a top online
newspaper carried our news and used the photo of our ex CEO to illustrate the
article. So we did everything in our
power in the stretch of an hour for that to be changed. However that was the one topic everybody
pointed out to me as if I or my agency could be to blame. It ended up being the fault of a trainee
webmaster in a financial online paper but it took a while to find that out. There are people who believe if you are in
charge of communications that as a PR professional you should be able to
control these errors, but you can’t because you are not present at the newsrooms
when they happen. PR editorial cannot be
controlled like paid for advertising and is always a risk. However the latter
is much more valuable to a company as it is news and not publicity but news of
any sort can always include mistakes, misinformation, etc and that’s often the
down side of my job.
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| Our amazing new tariff |
When I got
home I just had one day to recover and get ready to leave for Finland on Friday
morning. It was a busy day of
course. First I had to go to my rehabilitation sesson,
the only one I would attend this week.
In the afternoon I had to go to a meeting at the office. Thankfully it
was short so I missed the rush hour driving back. On the way home I had to stop
off at the Corte Inglés to buy some luxury ham and lomo to take to Finland for
Anne and to buy her a birthday present.
Whilst there, I indulged in some gourmet food to take home for dinner. Oli had mentioned it was her saint’s day;
something we never celebrate but as it would be only one of the dinners we
would have together that night with her boyfriend Miguel, I decided only the
best would do: prawn salad, croquettes, etc.
And Friday morning
came and I was up at 6.45 to be ready on time for my taxi at 7.45. I said goodbye to Eladio as he would be off
to Montrondo for the weekend, going there with his brother José Antonio in our
new car. He would be taking more of the
bathroom suites we had bought. I got to
the airport early and was in for a new experience with wheelchair assistance
for flying to Finland. It all went
smoothly and soon I was on the Finnair flight which would take some 4 hours to
reach Helsinki. I spent most of the time
reading, eating and sleeping and eager to arrive. I got there at 15.30 and the first bus to
Salo was at 15.55 but I missed it as the luggage took too long to arrive. I then caught the 16.55 bus which would take
1.40h to get to Salo. Dear Anne, my friend,
ex colleague and boss at Nokia when she was the marketing manager and I was the
communications manager, my surrogate sister and kindred spirit, although she is
13 years younger was there waiting for me. I had seen her recently but very
briefly in Madrid a few months ago, but the last time we had spent quality time
together was in April 2011 when I came to stay with her for a weekend after a
meeting in Stockholm. On the way home we
picked up a take away order from a new Nepalese restaurant in Salo and were soon
enjoying the rice, the buttered chicken and the lamb dumplings in her lovely
home. Afterwards we enjoyed a sauna
together and then we watched an episode of Call the Midwife in her comfortable
TV room.
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| Anne in her comfortable TV lounge |
The weather
was not on our side, some 0ºc with wind and quite a lot of rain, but it didn’t
really matter as because of my leg I cannot go on walks. The only thing missing in our perfect girly
weekend is the walks, but everything else has been perfect so far.
We were up
early – Finland is one hour ahead of Spain – and after breakfast we went into
town. First we stopped at the market
square by the river and here we bought tulips to decorate my friend’s house for
the birthday party today. Here is a
picture of Anne at the lovely tulip stall.
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| Anne buying tulips |
Then I spied a
honey stall and got a tub for Eladio as he is a honey freak and I thought he’d
like the thick Finnish honey, so different from Spanish honey.
The next item
on our agenda was a women’s bazaar at a Finnish school. That was a great idea and we both enjoyed it
thoroughly. I was keen to see a Finnish
school as their education system is so much admired in the rest of the
world. Going to this bazaar brought back
memories of English church hall bric and brac sales which I so loved as a child. The bazaar had many enticing products and
things to do including a fashion show, tarot card reading and of course lots of
stalls with local produce. I soon spied
a stall with striped tops. As you know I
am a magnet for striped clothing so there and then I got a green and white top
for myself and a grey and white one for Olivia.
They are lovely.
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| Striped clothing at the bazar |
After the
bazar Anne took me to have a bite to eat at a traditional cafeteria where her
Mother had worked once. Here I indulged
in possibly my favourite Finnish food, Karelian pies with egg and butter
topping. Here is a photo of the two of
us at Kuiro, a place I loved. I said
earlier that Anne is my kindred spirit and mainly that is because we have very
much the same taste in clothes, food and a similar outlook on life. No wonder we hit it off the first time we
met.
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| Lunch at Kuori yesterday |
Next on the agenda
was shopping of course and here I mean serious clothes shopping. I had to make up for lost time after being
home bound because of my accident. So
Anne drove me to the shopping centre in Salo and here I made a beeline for
Lindex and then KappAhl. At Lindex we
both bought the same pair of dark blue denim jeans. I also got a blue and grey, and yes, striped
cardigan and some gloves.
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| The cardian I got at Lindex yesterday |
At KappAhl I
bought a lovely pastel pink and white, yes striped, blouse, matching pink
jumper and again some gloves (for using your smartphone).
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| The pink and white striped linen blouse I bought at KappAhl yesterday |
Just as we
were going to the supermarket in the same centre we came across a mobile phone
shop with a Nokia logo which of course should now be replaced with a Microsoft one.
So for old times’ sake we had a photo taken underneath the logo of the
company which brought us together. It was rather nostalgic. When I posted it on FB I wrote “Nokia
connecting people” and “reuniting colleagues which is what we used to say. We also used to add and “disconnecting
families” because the company, although Finnish, was rather workaholic.
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| We had to have a photo under the Nokia logo |
The last item
on the day’s agenda was a quick visit to the supermarket. Here I would have loved to buy many things to
take home but they just wouldn’t fit in my suitcase so all I got was Finnish
Fazer chocolate for the family, my Father and my friend Julio as well as some
cloudberry jam for my Father. You may
wonder what is special about Fazer. Well, it may not be well known outside
Scandinavia but I think it is one of Finland’s best kept secrets.
We came home
happy and tired with our purchases and were soon flopping down in Anne’s
comfortable TV room where I got acquainted with the Doc Martin British TV series
whilst Anne took the dogs out.
Dinner last
night was really special. We went to
Salo’s best in cuisine, Salon Seurahuone, which is housed in a lovely old wooden
house of which there are a lot in this town.
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| The typical restaurant last night, Salo's best |
Of course we both wore our new
denims that night, as I wore my new cardigan.
I so love it I am wearing it again today. Here is a photo, another bad one, taken this
time by the restaurant owner, of the two of use enjoying a wonderful
dinner. Anne had blini for a starter and
I had elk pate, muuummmm.
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| Dinner last night |
We were home early as of course
in Finland dinner is at 7ish in the evening.
We ended our night by the TV again where we enjoyed a piece of chocolate
and a glass of red wine. Thankfully I
didn’t get a headache and slept long and well.
Meanwhile in Madrid I missed an
event I would have loved to attend.
Vicente, an ex- colleague, had organised a 25th Motorola anniversary
reunion for all the past and present employees.
I was the 4th employee to join and would have just loved to
join all my friends but I could not be in two places in one day. Here is a photo of just a few of us in
1994. Can you spot me? Motorola was where my career was forged and
will forever have a place in my heart.
Eladio, of course was in
Montrondo this weekend where he was joined by all his brothers and sisters
(there are 6 of them altogether) and his mother, Ernestina, who turned either
93 or 94 yesterday. Unlike me, they have had and are still having wonderful
weather and were outside most of the time.
This morning when I woke up,
Pili, Eladio’s youngest sister had posted a great photo of Eladio with his
Mother and Pili’s dalmation, Trébol, a great favourite of mine.
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| Eladio in Montrondo today on his Mother's birthday |
I would have loved to be in Montrondo too but I’m
even happier to be here in my beloved Finland.
You may wonder why I say “beloved” Finland. Well I love this country
thanks to my years at Nokia from 2000 to 2006 when I used to come here up to 6
times a year. The country and its people
grew on me. They are quiet and often shy
but very kind and hospitable. There is
zero violence with hardly any police on the street and the country runs like
clockwork. For me it’s the most
civilized country in the world not to mention overwhelmingly
beautiful if you appreciate nature and the outdoors like me.
So as I finish now and publish this
blog, I have nearly 4 days left to continue enjoying being here. Next Sunday I will tell you all about the
rest of my trip to Finland.
Meanwhile I wish you all a great
week ahead,
Cheers Masha
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