Off to Munich!

Maybe you’ve already heard on Twitter that we went to Munich two weeks ago.  We were invited to go there for a team building seminar as part of the eXist startup program. This program is pretty cool, it is directed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and the European Social Fund and is designed to help young startups get their ideas off the ground. As part of the project, we receive financial support and also lots of help and coaching on how to navigate the world of business as a new startup. So this team building seminar was our first official event with eXist and designed to help us get to know each other better and identify our team’s competencies.

So, anyway, back to the trip.  We started out on Tuesday morning at the train station, stocking up on snacks and coffee before our 4 ½ hours trip. Thankfully on the way there, the train ride was uneventful. We had a bit of a close connection, but still managed to switch trains in Mannheim with a few minutes to spare. And when we arrived in Munich, we had just enough time to hop on the local transit and get over to the location where the seminar was held.

The focus of the Seminar’s first day was to present ourselves as a team and get to know the other five startups better. Each team pitched their idea to the group and later on we all created a more detailed pen and paper overview of our projects. The range of startup ideas was quite diverse, from the more scientific projects (nano-materials and cell research), to software solutions (online-consulting, social media analytics and of course language learning) and even energy management (intelligent batteries for solar energy).

After discussing our business ideas and the challenges we see over the next year, it was finally time for dinner. We went to a typical Bavarian restaurant, had some intensely German food; think lots of potatoes, meat, cheese, and great Bavarian beer.  As the evening conversation wound on, we moved away from shop talk and also got to know the other teams on a more personal level.

The next day was all about the roles that each team member plays in the project and involved some reflection on how we see ourselves vs. how we are perceived by our team members and the outside world. We also learned to identify our strengths and weaknesses, and came up with a plan of the things we need to improve upon to succeed as a team. It was really interesting to see all this written out in text and diagrams, and to have a concrete representation of where we stand. I have to admit, it’s a bit tricky to put the whole experience into words, but I can strongly recommend this type of seminar for any team that is just starting out. It was really helpful to decide what kind of company culture we want, and how that will be build moving forward.

SpeaQ With Me in front of Munich town hall. Enjoying some sightseeing in the rain.

So that concluded the working part of the trip and we were sent out into the streets of Munich to find our way home. In the city, we had just enough time to battle through the rain and grab a quick dinner and see the city center. 

Eventually the rain got the best of us and we headed back to the train station to hop on the train back to Saarbrücken. As we rolled out of Munich, we hoped for smooth travels all the way back home. But if you know the Deutsche Bahn (German train company) you know it’s quite impossible to go somewhere without any delay. Which is exactly what happened. Arriving 15 minutes late in Mannheim, the next and also last train to Saarbrücken took of 5 minutes before. But the Deutsche Bahn knows their own limits and got us covered with a 1.5 hour taxi ride back home (glad we didn’t have to pay that taxi bill!). So strangely enough, we arrived in Saarbrücken earlier then we would have by train at around half past midnight. We all agreed that the next day we would maybe start an hour later to catch up on some much needed sleep.