Reflections on my trip to Brazil

From the moment we arrived, there were 2 things I noticed significantly...apart from the sunny and warm weather ?? Warm friendly people and very caring...especially the Brazilian women being so concerned about our safety. Couple of them actually invited us..after meeting us for the first time...to their home for dinner ?? Brazilians are voted as the happiest people in the world and Finland, the happiest country in the world - now that's a good combination ??

Firstly, my reflection about the work part...since it was a business trip and not a holiday after all! ??

Web Summit Rio: It was an amazing experience to be present and representing Tampereen kaupunki - City of Tampere with FinlandWorks. Our booth was well designed in the sense that it was attracting people to stop and look at the pictures and statement - good job Katri Raevuori and team ?? Most of the visitors I chatted with actually stopped because the picture and statement attracted them and they would ask me about it. Some have heard of Finland and some wasn't looking for us but they all stopped to chat with us because they wanted to know what Finland can offer. Most of them have heard of Finland - thank goodness! And the 2 most common reasons they were interested in Finland is because of the work-life balance and safety. I was surprised that even those who are in higher positions with good salaries are interested as they are sick of working 10-12 hours a day and would like to spend time with their families, majority of the girls/women I spoke with wants to move because they feel unsafe in different ways - walking on the street, diversity and freedom of speech. Growth possibility in career was also another reason the visitors wanted to find out about Finland.

International Tampere Discover Tampere: We decided to hold this event in Sao Paulo since there were already lots happening at the Web Summit and FinlandWorks side event in Rio. It was a much smaller scale event and we were happy that at least 50% of the people who registered turned up! We presented Finland, Tampere, some info about work permit processes and we had Marcela Batista who talked about her experience living and working in Tampere. For me, the fun part started when Nuppu Suvanto gave the audience a lesson in letkajenkka and almost all the Brazilians who attended joined in the line ??. We all had great conversations with the audience over food and drinks and we do have to thank Team Finland for turning up, championing us and joining in the fun and networking part ??. It was also so great to meet families and friends of Brazilians living in Tampere turning up at our event, so thanks Nadja Kari and Julia Tapioca for telling your families and friends about our event. If nothing else, this shows that there are enough Brazilians living in Tampere and Finland to make us feel like this is such a small world - no matter how far apart our countries are located ??

As with every trip you make, there were also some challenges I noticed which makes me appreciate Finland more after this trip!

1. Technology: I think I have been quite pampered with how technological advanced Finland is, so from the moment we arrived and during our whole trip, I felt like I was thrown back to 20 years ago! Our international credit card did not always work and you will need cash in hand just in case. To log on to a wifi, you need to sign in to google or facebook...which for privacy, it's not something I want to do and most places don't even provide wifi for their customers. If there is wifi, most often than not, it's not really that great and I remembered chatting with some young tech students and they were joking about this as well. Therefore, most of them are really interested to study or work in Finland - they felt they can learn and grow more in Finland than in Brazil - technologically. They mentioned also that things work too slowly in Brazil even if there are plans to improve or move things forward. I promised myself I shall learn to appreciate what we have in Finland and shall not complain about how slow things move here...which is nothing compared to Brazil ??

2. Language: From the moment we arrived, we noticed the lack of English or internationality. Brazil receives a lot of tourist - definitely more than Finland - and I wonder how foreigners survive being there if you don't speak Portugese. For those living in Finland and complaining about the language here...in Brazil, none of the shops, restaurants, nor the airport speak English! The only people who spoke English was the person who stamped my passport! Announcement for flights and boarding are all in Portugese ?? Google translate is your best friend - most of the shops automatically will communicate with you via their Google translate ?? Very friendly people everywhere but communication is a challenge and towards the end of the trip, it was starting to get very tiresome. So for the internationals living here and complaining about Finnish language - appreciate that at least there are people everywhere that will and can speak English to you here. For Finnish business especially B2C, take note about how challenging it is for your customers if you do not provide a common international language, in most cases, I guess it would be English.

PS: Most of the event staff, volunteers and food kiosk people do not speak English either! So since this is an international event with about 30K visitors, I hope the Web Summit team would find a way to make it more convenient for both the participants and visitors, which do not require Google translate or a local person to translate for you.

Overall, this has been an amazing eye-opener trip both personally and work-wise. Thank you Business Finland Laura Lindeman Katri Raevuori Jenni Falck Annamari Soikkeli and Lotta Eiroma for inviting us, taking care of us and turning up at Discover Tampere event to champion and support us. Also big thanks to Heidi Virta and Marco Sergio Izaac for hosting and helping us in Rio and Sao Paulo ??.

Big shoutout also to OP Financial Group's Tommi Korhonen and Saija Antikainen, Tampere city and Pirkanmaa TET: Mari Taverne Nuppu Suvanto, Murat Demirez Carita Prokki Tuuli Humina 文名 Annina Rantala Teemu Sernola, Helsinki team: Clarisse Bergg?rdh and Drussila Hollanda and Oulu team: Auli Kangas and Hanna Mattila for teaming up and working together in making this a successful trip ??

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