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Slow Business Adventure
Slow Business Adventure
An outdoor unconference for people with an entrepreneurial spirit, a warm heart and fierce creativity. We meet in Skjolden, where Norways longest fjord Sognefjorden ends and the landscape passes into the stunning peaks of Jotunheimen National Park.
June 4-6, 2024
3
days to connect, walk, think, and create what's next
25
people building profitable and impactful Slow Businesses
Time to Think and Create What's Next for Your Wildly Successful Slow Business
Time to Think and Create What's Next for Your Wildly Successful Slow Business
Deliberately take time away from your everyday life to cultivate your ideas, explore an incredible place and think deep about your next project or business phase. A nourishing gathering north of the ordinary.
Food, simple accommodation, indoor/outdoor event space with sauna and a pool is included in the ticket
Best suited to seasoned entrepreneurs way beyond the business fundamentals and regular conferences
Program Outline
Peer-to-peer exchanges of experience and time/space to think and develop new ideas is at the core of why we gather. Only knowledgeable, experienced and humorous people are coming so there is no doubt in our minds that it will be mind-blowing.
It is an unconference, and so we will not know the exact program until it actually happens. If nobody is interested in an activity (to hold it or attend), then we will just move on to something else.
Examples of day 1 activities
- Welcome! Settle in and relax, this is a magical place
- Put your "out of office"-assistant to work or finish your admin tasks at the coworking space
- Fjord plunge/swim/sunbathing/beach volleyball and/or sauna
- Visit to the Tiny House Village Torill is building
- Workshop sessions (teach something you are passionate about or something you have learned the hard way)
- Practice a business skill (praktisk gründertrening), for example practice a sales call, a pitch or an introduction to a keynote or workshop you will be holding)
- Campfire conversations
- Setting up tents/cars/mattresses for budget accommodation
- Indoor pool party
- Cooking dinner together
Examples of day 2 activities
- Morning yoga outdoors
- Work on your business strategy, make a plan, come up with new ideas, get new perspectives or learn from others
- Walkshop(TM) were you can think deep about a business opportunity or problem
- Write something
- Half day hike in Jotunheimen or Mørkridsdalen with matpakke (packed lunch)
- See some pretty spectacular waterfalls
- Visit the simple hut and much appreciated and productive workplace of the world famous philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein
- Participate in making dinner
- Make logo earrings at the Skjolden skaperverkstad - a local makerspace
- Performances. Poetry, singing, play on a saw or a drum or whatever you like to do
Examples of day 3 activities
- Sleep in or wake up early to see the sun rise over the mountains
- Start creating that landing page for your new thing!
- Reflect and write down all of your new ideas and inspiration
- Commit to changing 1 thing when you come home, it can be a new habit, follow up with a person you have met or in other ways implement what you have taken to heart
- NOT clean the floor of the venue, that's included in the price.
- Travel home safely with a full heart, content with where you are in your business right now but eager to have discovered what's next.
What is an Unconference?
An unconference is perhaps best described as a "self-organized" event where the participants are solely responsible for how valuable it becomes.
There are 4 main rules that generally apply, and one (#5)that is specific to the Slow Business way of doing things.
- Whoever shows up are the right people
- Whatever happens is the only thing that could have
- Whenever it starts is the right time
- It's over when it's over (this rule we are actually breaking because we have an online coworking membership, Creative Fierce, where we can stay connected)
- It takes more than one log to make a fire, so we ask: What can you contribute? To the local community you are visiting, your industry, to this event. (Hva kan du bidra med? Til lokalsamfunnet du besøker, til bransjen du driver i, til denne samlingen).
Ways you can contribute
Your most valuable contribution will probably be to just be there. Honestly, the only thing we ask is that you help clean up after the meals we eat together. But we know you are awesome and we would love to learn from you. If you want to, here are some suggestions for what you might want to do:
- Show your work, for example teach a 15 minute workshop
- Practice a business skill with someone, for example give feedback to another person's presentation
- Join the kitchen team and help prepare the delicious, organic food we shop at the local store next door
- Lead a coworking or writing session
- Ask for help, lead a panel discussion or a brainstorming
- Prepare a cultural element for the evening
- Prepare some questions for a topic you want to know more about during the campfire conversations
- Hold a yoga class or invite someone to take a walk
- Set and decorate the table for dinner
- Give someone a ride to the event or help them plan their trip
- Engage in meaningful conversations!
How It All Began
Look back at the first Slow Business Adventure in Gjendesheim, a mountain lodge in the Jotunheimen National Park in 2019.
A Prize Winning Event
Slow Business Adventure received a gold medal for best outdoor design and silver for best visual branding in the design competition "Innlandsperler".
Meet the Founder of Slow Business Adventure
Hi, I am your host Torill Wilhelmsen
Asking for help was never my strength. Educated as an international economist, I was used to hiding behind my computer crushing numbers. Alone. Following the “do it all by yourself” recipe with my first business was a disaster, and I ended up applying for jobs (sigh…).
After 5 years working as head of business in a municipality, I experienced a burnout and had to figure out what I wanted out of my life going forward.
The answer was that I want to live an adventurous life through entrepreneurship! I love to create and I love to connect people. Naturally, I've built a business, Fjellflyt (Mountainflow), that brings creative people together in an environment where we deliberately ask for feedback and support each other.
And what an adventure my entrepreneurship journey has taken me on so far! Walking business courses, Walkshops (TM) that were featured in Forbes.com, conferences, masterminds, retreats. A one-to-one mentorship program that I love dearly, where I have a maximum of 2 clients at any one time (currently 4 months waiting list).
I opened BETA, a rural coworking space in 2016 and sold it in 2021, and an industry newspaper referred to me as a pioneer in the coworking industry.
I've also published the FOCUS planner that keeps your project on track even when you're juggling multiple projects at once.
Currently, I have three main ventures:
- The Creative Fierce, a virtual coworking community where I have an European group and Sonia Simone and Claire Emerson runs groups in the US and Australia.
- Establishing Norway's first tiny house village here in Skjolden with Norske Mikrohus AS.
- And the most exciting venture of them all - a gathering for heart-centered entrepreneurs from Europe and beyond:
I'm humble and honored to invite you to the Slow Business Adventure.
So there you have it. So to you, my future friend: myself and a group of future business allies are waiting to get to know you.
Let the adventure begin!
Adventurous greetings from Torill
Tony Burns, founder Effectivespeaking.co.nz
What exactly is Slow Business?
A Sustainable Way for You and Your Business
As the founder of your own company, the pressure is constantly ON.
It's common to fluctuate between feeling like a superhero and feeling lost. There are big projects, small fires, difficult customers, contractors that disappear from the face of earth. All combined with the daily grind of product development, social media marketing, accounting, sales calls, administration, deliveries and not-yet-fully-optimized funnels.
With Slow Business, we invite you to take a different approach:
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Carefully select just a few projects, marketing channels and products.
- Replace short-term profit goals with a long-term perspective so you can build a sustainable and profitable business that becomes your life's works.
- Take time to discern the problem and stop searching for the next marketing tactic or app that will be a quick-fix, when you don't even know if it's solving the right problem in your business.
-
Connect, co-work and collaborate with other people more often than not.
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Escape the non-stop cycle of work, and take a step back to clear your mind, learn new skills and meet like-minded people.
You can buy a new computer when it's broken, but you can't just order a new body online.
With Slow Business, you don't have to. You are an expert firestarter, and in the Slow Business community we are many that will help add to your fire in various ways, so you don't burn out (again).
Save the date and plan your journey to Scandinavia
Where and when is it?
Slow Business Adventure takes place June 4-6, 2024 in Skjolden, Sognefjorden.
Our event space is the out-of-the-ordinary community centre Fjordstova.
Travel planning
Find travel information and accommodation at Visit Sognefjord or Skjolden.com
The nearest airport is Sogndal (SOG), with daily connections from the international airports Bergen and Oslo (OSL), and the regional airports Ørsta-Volda, Sandane and Førde.
There is an airport bus to Sogndal which is the nearest city to Skjolden. From there you can find bus connections with Skyss.no
For national travel planning entur.no is a good source. For international travel planning Rome2Rio.com is useful.
For this event we are sorry to inform you that we don't have the capacity to help with individual travel planning on zoom or email.
Fjordstova - Indoor Event Space
The community center in Skjolden is quite extraordinary (which is why it fits so well to the Slow Business event!). The around 300 people of Skjolden have this large community building that contains everything we need for the event - and more.
A swimming pool with panorama views to the fjord and two saunas, an office space (Kontorstova), a café, two exhibitions (about national parks and Wittgenstein), full conference facilities in 3 different rooms with professional sound and projectors/large LED-TV, a small gym and a large gymnasium. A thrilling climbing/bouldering wall.
And a wonderful, little handicraft shop run that was opened in a collective effort by a group of local women.
Our Main Conference Space is Outdoors
Fjordstova is fantastic, but our main conference space is actually outdoors. Ranging from the Fjordstova terrace where you can relax and enjoy the views, the sun (or rain) and good company. The cherry trees just outside.
The paths along the fjord, an easy village roundtrip, the more rugged paths up the surrounding hills (to be fair they are proper mountains) and if you want to go further - the inviting national parks of Breheimen and Jotunheimen. And the town itself is an eldorado for short Walk yourself creative-strolls.
The people of Skjolden are wonderful. Come, and you will quickly become one of them. For a couple of days, for an adventurous year, or like me - for the foreseeable future.
Travelers seeking high comfort are encouraged to book at the family run Skjolden hotel next door to Fjordstova. There are a lot of other options, a few recommended ones would be the flats at Skjolden Brygge or single/double rooms at Eide gard.
The ticket includes accommodation on a flat bed at the community center Fjordstova (bring your own mattress). Yes, there are showers.
You can put up a tent on the lawn or park your campervan at the parking lot.
Then we kindly ask that you consider joinging the kitchen team, so you can make sure that your favorites are on the table.
Let's say you want to organize an activity that costs money, like a llama walk, a rib tour or hire bikes. You can find an overview over what's available in the area at Skjolden.com and one local company that has a lot to offer is adventuretours.no
Then you can volunteer to do the bookings up front, and try to gather a perfect size group for your desired activity in our planning meeting on Zoom.
You also have to collect the extra money for the activity to pay the, uhm, llamas. (Vipps is great for that in Norway. Even llamas charge digitally).
The Slow Business Adventure/Fjellflyt AS is not responsible for any failed payments or no-shows. We have a good relationship with all of the local businesses and know that you as a participant, co-organizer and business owner yourself will also respect that.
Tuesday May 16, at 10.30-11.30 am Oslo time. Ticket holders get the link on email a few days prior to the meeting.
Full access to the facilities at our base Fjordstova, our tool to co-create the Slow Business Adventure experience:
- 2 common rooms for dining, office work and presentations
- 1 smaller room for group workshops
- Newly refurbished swimming pool
- large outdoor terrace facing the fjord
- shady lawn ideal for yoga
- outdoor dining area with tables and benches
- campfire pan
- Shower, saunas and shared changing rooms
- projector, sound system and LED TV for presentations
- gymnasium with exercise mats
- a small gym with exercise equipment for strength training
- community kitchen (accessible for the kitchen team)
- simple accommodation in the gymnasium
- a walkable, scenic fjord town with a local Coop Marked grocery store that specializes in organic food
Recommendation from Sonia Simone, founding partner and chief content officer for Copyblogger Media, publisher of the web's most influential blog on content marketing. Copyblogger receives about 500.000 unique visitors a month, and has been called the "Bible of content marketing."
We kept looking at one another and asking, “You’re as blown away as I am, right?”
In September, I went to Norway for the Slow Business Adventure conference. And I fell completely head over heels for that team and their event.
I’m usually pretty good at putting things into words. But this event isn’t easy to describe.