#OperationSnowflake – to go where no office has gone before!

Testing the idea

Simply, I sent an email asking if anyone would be interested in experiencing a working week with a difference, they’d have to cover some of their own costs, but it would be a change from the usual office environment. I got a lot of “yes of course” responses and with that we moved onto the next stage of #OperationSnowflake.

Pop-up Futurice Office

Excuse me… How is this related to your work?

The benefits of getting outdoors, spending time together and exercising are huge, so we just decided to combine all of these factors together, whilst also taking advantage of the super-strong internet connection that can be found everywhere in Finland (even in the depths of the countryside). Play would not stop work.

FutuHiking – sorry now I’m totally lost. What do you mean? Some kind of a running event?

Nope, it’s the possibility for Futurice people to travel to other locations where we have offices and meet the colleagues and explore the city. It supports the culture and knowledge sharing between our sites. So with that in mind we created a pop-up FutuHiking site in Levi, Kittilä, for just one week.

Ski or work – or do both!

Now we’re off! 25 Futuriceans are packing their skies, laptops and chargers into four cars, one train and an aeroplane as we set-up camp and relocate to Levi, Kittilä for one week on 17th of April. The Levi office will start operating on Monday, 18th April onwards.

Really why?

We’re encouraged to ask ‘really why’ in our work, so we asked ourselves this question. And we decided why not. We’ll be spending a week in scenic Finnish Lapland, taking in the warm spring weather with lots of snow and sunshine, with the best colleagues in the world. We’ll enjoy a relaxed atmosphere and they’ll be lots of activities to take part in. We’ll wake up early, hit the slopes for an hour or two, then with an energised mind and body, we’ll start the working day and maybe even squeeze in some evening cross-country skiing. Couple all of this with team breakfasts, lunches and dinners, we thought it sounded like fun!

To Levi and beyond…

This year we have people from Helsinki, Tampere and London assembling for the first year of #OperationSnowflake. We’ve got high hopes for this meeting and we’re hoping to make this an annual event, taking the FutuHiking concept on tour around the world. We’ve already had requests from people who would prefer sunny climates and Portugal and Spain have been mentioned. So watch this space, for #OperationSunshine.

Futurice conquering the north!

Stayed tuned and follow our Levi FutuHiking week on Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter at #OperationSnowflake.