Long time no ocean

Oh gosh it's been ages since I last wrote something here.. Guess it tells something about my feelings towards our Spring project for St. Peter Line (?). I wasn't really that motivated during the 2nd semester, not at least when it came to the project. I was extremely excited about our language studies and I did well on my German lessons. Somehow I just felt like I didn't get personally so much of the St. Peter Line project and I couldn't go to Saint Petersburg because I didn't have the money.

Our 3rd semester started on 25th of August so a couple of weeks have already passed since then. Our class was divided into two according to our specialisation: Event Management and Corporate Travel Management. I chose the CTM and so far I feel like I did the right thing. Our group seems to be very motivated and I like the fact that now the group is a bit smaller. We got quite many exchange students to our group too so now our international class is even more international! :)

We have different projects according to our specialisations. Out project seems very interesting and I am really looking forward to it. Now it seems like we are "getting down to business". We are meeting our commissioner next week's Tuesday and then we will know more about the project details. :)

Goodbye Matka, hello St. Peter Line!

Woah. It's March already! Where did all the time go?

Matka Travel Fair is far behind and a new project has begun. The Matka Project went well and the actual fair was an awesome experience. I had the chance to meet lots of people and create important connections.

Every project has its challenges. Luckily we faced only small difficulties, for example with the fair tickets and with the technology at the stand. And yes, also some people caused me some loss of hair with their absence, but still I would say they were small challenges and we solveved them quickly.

My class mates gave me very good feedback in all of our peer assessments. There were approximately 79 assessments of me and only a couple of them had a grade 4/5 or 4,5/5 instead of 5/5. One assesment had even 6/5! I am very grateful and to be honest, I have never got as good feedback in my life. Feels awesome to get very positive feedback of the hardwork I did during the project. :)

Now we are working with a research project. We are planning and implementing an image and a customer satisfaction research for St. Peter Line ferry company. Project can be found from Facebook and Twitter @TOBBA13HH but this time we are concentrating on video promoting on YouTube in our TOBBA13HH channel! Check out our first TOBBA13 Movement video!

Our class has been divided into teams: Transformers (writing), Aron's Angels (Travel Agency), Nerd Squat (IT Support), Wise (Research), PRO (PR). I am a member of the PRO team and mainly responsible of Facebook, Twitter and Youtube updates.

I am a bit disappointed to the project, or how it has begun. We have been at campus since January and not until this week have we actually DONE something for the project. The start has been very slow and I know we are going to be in a terrible hurry very soon because of it.

On the other hand I am pleased with the fact that now I have had enough time to concentrate on my other courses; I am especially excited about the language studies. I decided to start German from the beginning although I studied it on my 8th and 9th grade. We've had two tests by now and I got 5/5 from the first one, the other I haven't got back yet. I know I didn't remember some things but I had a good feeling about the test afterwards. :)

Unfortunately I am not able to do my internship abroad this summer due to my financial situation. I have applied to several jobs from Porvoo (summer jobs and part-time jobs starting from now) and I really hope to get one soon. I will try to find the internship place for the summer 2015 and apply for the exchange programme for spring 2016. Of course this situation annoys me but all I can do is to keep applying those jobs, work hard and hope the best...

Back to business

Holidays are still going on but I decided to return to Porvoo a bit earlier. I have a couple of things to do for the project and I still need to find proper clothes! I also know that I need some time on my own just to gather my thoughts together and get ready for the next week's hectic schedule.

Quite many people asked me during the Autumn wether I'm stressed, nervous or even scared about the fair and most of all about the big responsibility I have. I was evey time a bit surprised about the question and answered "No, why would I? I'm trying to do my best and I trust on my team mates. I can also see that everything is going pretty smoothly so why get scared?".

Guess my experience in working under pressure makes me more comfortable about stress than many others. I was stressed just like everyone else but it never took over me. I've experienced some sort of nervoussness during the last couple of days because I had the feeling I had forgotten somehing. Hope that feeling goes away as soon as I'm "on the track" again!

During the second period I was more stressed about mathematics and Swedish than the project. To my surprise I passed the Swedish course with the grade 3 but (as I already feared) didn't pass the second part of the math course. To be honest I don't like the teaching style of that subject and the fact that I've always had some problems with math doesn't help me when facing unmotivating teaching. Luckily students' feedback is taken seriously in our campus and I hope I find the motivation to practice for the re-exam..

End of the 1st semester

My first semester in Porvoo Campus is soon over. Feels weird! It was like yesterday when I started my studies.. Can't believe how fast time is passing by.

I've been thinking about my moves for the future. We had our International Opportunities info couple of days ago where Porvoo Campus' International Coordinator Mari Austin told us about exchange opportunities in HAAGA-HELIA and what is needed for it. I was thrilled to hear that HH will most likely have a new partner university in England: Manchester Metropolitan University! I will apply to the exchange programme so that I would be in England for the Spring semester 2015 or the whole of my 3rd year (2015-2016). Fingers crossed!

I am planning to do my first intership period next summer. I am going to be in contact with travel agencies in Manchester very soon. I just need to get my CV back with comments from our teacher.. I would like to do either 2 or 3 months work placement. The overal compolsory work placement time is 5 months. I'm also interested in Australia and New Zealand but unfortunately byt budget is not enough for those awesome places..

Although the Matka project has gone well I can't get this nasty feeling out of my chest. I and many others from my group have faced difficulties with communication and reliability with some members of our teams. It is sad but unfortunately reality in every community that not everyone is equally motivated. My challenge as the Project Manager has been motivating the people, keeping all the pieces together and keeping the people being open about their problems and challenges with the project. I just hope that we manage to finish all our tasks before our Christmas holiday starts..

What have we been doing?

 

I visited HAAGA-HELIA's Haaga Campus in Helsinki today with six members from our Project Teams and our teacher Leena Aitto-oja. We met Haaga's tourism students who are working with us at our stand in Matka Nordic Travel Fair. Some of their teachers and other HAAGA-HELIA personnel were taking part on the meeting too. Our purpose for the visit was to present our plans for the fair stands and to get to know our fellow students in Haaga Campus.

Porvoo and Haaga tourism students are working together at the stand and Porvoo students are in charge of the project. I'm really glad that the students from Haaga Campus are working with us at the stand since there are not that many people in our own group (so help is needed!) and I think it's nice to know the students from other HAAGA-HELIA's Campuses, especially those who are studying the same field as we are. I'm looking forward to meet Haaga tourism students again and I wish we could arrange some kind of a "get-together event" before Christmas Holiday since this meeting was so tight and full of information (dunno if we have time for that though :( ).

Ahsan Nazmul, Mariliis Markna
and Sara Sinervo at Haaga Campus 26.11.2013.

Like I said earlier the project is going very well and I think we are a bit ahead of the schedule. Our Sponsorship Team has managed to get awesome sponsors e.g. Canon, EF and Hotellilaiva Hanko Helsinki and Marketing Team's posters and flyers will be printed soon. We are active in social media (Twitter, Facebook, Instragram, Pinterest, project's website) and Logistics Team is creating work shifts for us and the teachers. Activities Team has already confirmed all the activities we're going to have at the stand and just some small things need to be done to finilize them.

Activities Team giving an info session.
Ahsan Nazmul, Aron kovacs, Tatiana Martynova and Nina Vainio
25.11.2013

Alumni Team is working on with the invitations and food orders to the Alumni Event and BTF Team has started to collect all the important information to our Fair Folder as well as teach the rest of our group all the basic information we need to know about HAAGA-HELIA. Decoration Team has designed the stand's layout and  features in cooperation with FairPartner.

Decoration Team drawing the stand's layout.
Elizaveta Ragozina, Sara Sinervo and Tuyet Huynh.
8.11.2013

We're not having lotteries and competitions only at the actual stand but also before the fair! We gave away two tickets to Matka 2014 Nordic Travel Fair in our first Facebook lottery already on Nov 18th. People were asked to like a certain picture on our project's Facebook page and the tickets were raffled among the "likers". We are going to publish another lottery or a competition on our FB page soon..


Maija Turunen and Matthew Roblin
executing our first FB lottery on 18.11.2013

Busy, busy, busy!

I knew studying in HAAGA-HELIA was going to be hectic but this tightness of the schedules has surprised me! I haven't had the chance to write about my studies for ages..

We made a studytrip to Tallinn, Estonia, between 20th and 22nd of October. Our Matka Project's Logistics team planned and organised the whole  trip by themselves. They contacted the ferry and bus companies, planned and created activities and company visits and took care of all the little details during the trip. In Tallinn we visited Estravel, Carlson-Wagonlit Travel, Hotell Metropol (in which way also stayed during the trip), Sokos Hotel Viru and Kalev chocolate factory. The trip was a success and I personally learnt some new stuff about travel agencies and the travel business in Tallinn. Of course I also learned to know my classmates a bit better!

Here are some pictures from the trip!


Juuli Vähäuski enjoys the sea breeze on the way to Tallinn!
20.10.2013

Company visit to Carlson Wagonlit Travel.
Shoaib Ullah, Sonja Kosunen.
21.10.2013

Steve Cheng, Samuli Vahteristo and Maija Turunen
in front of Carlson Wagonlit Travel office.
21.10.2013



Me and my classmates enjoying a dinner
together in Hotell Metropol, Tallinn.
20.10.2013
 

Our Matka 2014 Project is going well. We are just a bit ahead of schedule and everything seems to go pretty smoothly (for now..). We need to get everything ready before we start our Christmas holiday on December 20th. As a Project Manager I have enjoyed this project very much. I have learnt so much about our Tobba13 group and I've also got some new perspectives on project management. I hope I'll have some more time later to tell what exactly have we been doing during these weeks..

The Project Manager?

We were introduced to our first semester project during the first week and quickly after that we were asked to apply for the Project Manager's position. Some of us felt a bit confused about the applying and the fact that we were supposed to do it so quickly, "I just came here, I don't know what the Project Manager is supposed to do and what this project is going to be!". Some thought it was compolsory, some thought it was only for those who wanted it.

At first I wasn't so sure weather I wanted to be the Project Manager or not. It seemed like a huge responsibility and I wasn't sure if I wanted to experience that immediately at the beginning of my studies. I have lots of experience in leadership from my association background, but some how I thought maybe I should give this opportunity to someone else this time..

I applied for the position like most of my class mates and to my surprise (or not..?) got an invitation to the interview with 4 other applicants. I was pretty nervous about the interview although I was sure at that point that I seriously wanted the position. There I was in front of 3 teachers and 1 tutor answering their questions about my skills in leading a big group and dealing with social problems inside a team. I had a good feeling after the interview, at least I made them laugh!

Our teachers revealed their selection in front of our class on the following Monday. They said that the selection was very easy: they had all voted for the same person "and the person is, Emma Raivio!". My heart made and extra bounce when I heard my name! I was stunned, maybe even shocked. "Wow! Me, a Project Manager? And I've just started here!". I was flattered but I also knew it meant long days and a huge responsibility..

During that Monday we divided our group into teams. The teams were Marketing, Sponsorship, Decoration, Activies, Logistics, Alumni Event and Business Travel Forum and they all have a Team Leader. I think at this point it would be a good moment to tell what this whole project is about! (We were at that moment still a bit confused so I thought it would be more realistic to hide "the core" from this blog post too until this moment..).

The project is called "Matka 2014 Nordic Travel Fair". We international tourism students are supposed to set up HAAGA-HELIA's stand for the Matka Fair in Helsinki Convention Center. HAAGA-HELIA is taking part on the fair for 12th time and it takes place between 16th and 19th of January 2014. There is going to be a public stand available for everyone and a smaller stand at the Business Travel Forum, which is available only for "business people".

My duty as the Project Manager is to supervise teams' work and take care of the "overall" picture. I'm giving reports to our teachers and delivering their messages to the teams. I have a weekly meeting with the Team Leaders and a Check Point meeting with the whole group every other week (or as often as needed). I'm also a member of the Business Travel Forum team because I'm representing HAAGA-HELIA mainly on that stand and I'm supposet to give a speech at the forum too.

I've enjoyed being the Project Manager and I feel like I've done a good job so far. I've received nothing but positive feed back on my working from our teachers and from my class mates. My stress level hasn't risen very high yet (thanks to our active and efficient teams!) but I know the forth coming weeks are going to be more and more stressful when the "actual" working begins.. Sometimes I've been so consentrated on the project that some of my other courses (like maths and Swedish) have been left behind and that has caused unfinished assignments. I hope I manage to fix my own schedules before the stress level rises higher..