My trip to Åland

Hi again dear friends

This time I will show you some pictures from my last trip. This was last weekend, and the trip went to Finland.

I was to hold a lecture, or speech or whatever you may call it, on a conference. This was a womens conference, on business entrepreneurship for women. It was sponsored by the EU, and the theme was called: To Choose your way. Or "AT VALJE SIN VEG" as they say.
It was quite interesting. It was a mix of women who have started their own business, officials, professors and other scientists, and politicians.

I was one of the women who told their story. and the listeners were around 200 women.

There were many interesting stories. One interesting story was by the woman behind the Finish brand Noolan www.noolan.com

I think the listeners also found my story interesting. The long way we have gone, Franz and I. From streetsellers in Japan, until today. Thats a long and winding road, I can assure you !

I also met the Swedish celebrity auditor Amelia Adamo. The woman behind several very
succesfull womens magasines.

And finally, the President of Finland, Mrs Tarja Halonen came ! Quite an honour to the conference. But then again, it was an important topic. How to make women start businesses. After all, we are 50% of the population. And if we do start businesses, they are different from mens businesses. So its not a question of either, or. Its an addition to a countries output.

What is very important for politicians and officials to understand, is that its a good thing for their country, and their economy. So they must make it possible for women to do it.

When the conference ended, I went out into the sunshine. I went together with a new friend that I met. Kerstin, an amazing firework of a woman from Sweden, that has invented a special wildberry picking tool which is collapsible. (sammenleggbar bærplukker) Her company is called Hooked on nature www.hookedonnature.se

She and I had a cold beer in the sun ! Lovely ! Mariehamn and Åland is a really small place. so by the end of the conference we were almost celebrities too. There was a lady who wanted Kerstin to autograph her berrypicker ! Ha ha.
There was a streetparty going on. Mariehamn celebrated their 150 years, and the local rockband was playing. Kjerstin really got into it after two beers.

Its great to be invited to such events. Its really inspiring to meet all these amazing other women. but also to visit Åland. Åland is a swedish speaking part of Finland, located on an island in the middle of the Baltic sea. I had to go by ferry back to Stockholm, before flying back to Oslo.