Welcome to the 21st Century

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It certainly wasn't that normal Monday feeling and even after only 2 days we all seem to be settled now and feel like we have been here much longer a testiment to the warmth of the city and thankfully not just the people as again we woke to beautiful sunshine, I would rub it in more but it seems the same can be said for back in the UK as I was informed on Sky news this morning - yes that is one of the only english speaking channels on the tv in the hotel (for a change) along with Nat Geo and the History channel no doubt I will be the No.1 fan of ice road truckers by my return.

We all met in reception and started on the 5 minute walk to the Narra Hamnagatan building that will be our main base for the 2 weeks, the city was buzzing with all types of people going about their daily business it is certainly a beautiful cultural city with a really friendly inclusive feel.

After my inability to read the numbers on the building we finally made it to the correct location and waiting for us was Robin, the intern who has devised the programme for our stay and it was clear in a matter of minutes we were in safe hands as he welcomed us with a huge smile and informed us to help ourselves to a drink from the FREE hot drinks machine. After being informed we do not have such a thing in Durham Robin was shocked and indicated there would be a riot if staff were expected to pay to grab a cup of coffee.

The building was very impressive but Robin seemed a little confused at how impressed we were - lets hope he gets the chance to visit us at County Hall some day so he can put it into perspective.

We had a chat through the programme ahead and were pleased to hear Robin will be with us for most of our journey, he then proceeded to issue us with prepaid travel cards for the bus system which was a very nice gesture.

Then it was time to meet the rest of the External Relations team and we were given the opportunity to deliver our presentation giving an overview of Durham County Council followed by each apprentice providing info on their teams and the roles they play in them - all the apprentices were excellent and delivered their parts with ease certainly a lot better than I would be able to do at their age they represented the Council to a very high standard.

Following a quick lunch break in a quaint cafe the group had discovered the day before we met back up with Robin to head to the Lindholmen Science Park to meet Gunnar Ohin, Project Manager for the impressive ElectriCity project. This required us to take a quick FREE ferry ride (there is a pattern forming here) to the science base and Gunnar proceeded to introduce us to the project and gave us a tour of the magnificent office buildings they are based in - as Aaron indicated it felt like you were at the Google head office.

The science park is a mix of professionals, students and specialists working and learning under the same roof enabling integration between all sectors to improve their working practices - this seemed evident with the unique layout of the buildings providing an open relaxed working environment with many work areas containing whiteboard and whitetables for brain storming sessions.

The ElectriCity project is a ground breaking idea to transform the city of Gothenburg to a fossil free transport system by 2050 with development of electric only buses to be introduced across the city by 2019 - a colleague of Gunner, Lina then delivered a presentation providing further info on the exact development work needed and the factors all stakeholders are required to consider to enable this vision to be realised.

We then had the opportunity to ride on one of the buses to a sister science park based at the Chalmers University of Technology at the other end of the city waiting in the unique indoor bus shelter for the oh so quiet bus to arrive - the journey was smooth and easy to see why this will be the future for the city.

The university was hosting a development workshop where an innovation challenge provided a group of students a limited amount of time to chat and question the main stakeholders to then provide their own suggestions and recommendations - again we were welcomed with open arms and the group engaged with the speakers to gather some more interesting information around the project.

All in all a thoroughly enjoyable and enlightening first day of the programme with many innovative ideas that demonstrated how forward thinking this city and country really is.

A great start to the programme and lets hope each day is as entertaining as today.

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