Spikes and Middle Management
Nils Heldal
McKenna Stark (California) and Jaya Thomlison Syltern (Toronto) are on the fast track to becoming “Trønders.” They share an office at DIGS, working on various municipality-driven projects, including city branding and support for expat spouses.
Great Balance
Since 2013, Digs has been pivotal in supporting startups and creatives, fostering a thriving and inclusive community. It’s also a great spot for conversation and a latte.
McKenna: Well, I certainly think Trondheim is on the main stage of technology when it comes to the Nordics and potentially in numerous other fields. I think Trondheim really stands out, but I think one of the key things about Trondheim is the balance and the lifestyle that surrounds the tech community and the tech ecosystem, because without that, I don't think it's going to be as much of a draw for people to come and live here.
But you have such a great balance alongside science and tech such as the foodie culture as well as the art, music and cultural scene. Then you have the abundance of nature surrounding the city, and you have so many different industries here that are really thriving. So, I think there's a really good balance outside of just tech. But this tech community is making its mark and it's growing on the world's stage, that much is obvious.
A Shift
Jaya: I think that we're going through a shift right now where the people who have been in decision making powers, who are invited as keynote speakers, who are invited to speak to politicians who are very much referenced in the media. That needs to change. We need to open up.
The second thing is that the work culture here, while it's very quick in some ways people can commercialize an idea, put it, you know, do two years of R&D, collaborate with a Horizon Europe project and then have something that could be commercialized.
Unfortunately, the business culture here is very much reliant on meetings. People spend a lot of time in meetings, drinking coffee in meetings, and that doesn't provide a lot of open time for doing stuff.
The third thing is that there's a huge dependency on email in Trondheim. I can't tell you how many times I've heard, oh, Jaya, can't you just send me an email summary of that? No, I cannot! Take notes. You're here. You can remember what your follow up task is. I'm not going to spend an extra ten minutes sending you an email. So those three things I think are hindrances to our growth.
Nils Heldal
Defying Gravity
Interviewer: If someone from your hometown in the U.S. approached you and asked about moving to Trondheim, what would you say?"
McKenna: I'd say you need to prepare and get some good clothing, because what we think is winter in California is not winter. Second thing I'd say is you need to learn how to walk on ice, because that was a learning curve for me. I actually thought I was going to do a PechaKucha on this once, because I would literally study people walking in their flat Vans sneakers and I'm like, they're defying gravity. How are they doing this?
And so, I realized there's actually three different skill sets to ice walking.: 1) Walk like a penguin. 2) Avoid heel-to-toe steps. 3) Lean forward slightly to avoid falling backward and embarrassing yourself."
Jaya: There is a fourth. You have to you have to get rid of all your high heels, and you work related shoes that you're accustomed to wearing in other parts of the Western world. They're staying in your closet.
“Piggdekk”, I'm not even sure that helps much, to be honest.
McKenna: "Piggdekk?"
Jaya: Yeah, the spikes for shoes.
McKenna: Aren’t those for the elderly?
Jaya: Yeah, they do,
McKenna: Or at least I was told that when I moved here. You can't wear the spikes because then you're classified as a senior citizen.
Jaya: It's lovely to wear the spikes, but people steal them every time you take them off. And, you know, at meetings, it's like, oh, those are mine.
McKenna: I would say prepare for the seasons.
Nils Heldal
Because of the Lifestyle
Jaya: So, I've recruited people to Trondheim for businesses, but also my own sister moved here and works as a designer. So, my darling Emma moved here, and originally for a project that we were involved in. So, I think a lot of people who are really interested in receiving a hypothesis, there's some options for how to solve the problem. And then and then you can actually quite quickly access funding to test out, whether it's a pre study or a two-year study.
Test out how you would solve this problem. And at the time we were looking at city development, tourism and attractive city, which has led into a lot of knowledge that we use now and work in Trondheim and in the city brand.
So, we're able to bring people here because of the lifestyle, because you can have flexibility and autonomy in your workplace. You're not going to be micromanaged by medium, you know “Mellomledere” Yeah, we need less of those.
Notes:
Piggdekk (literally spiked tyres) refers to spikes you attach to your shoes for icy conditions—a common need here.
Mellomledere refers to middle management.
Nils Heldal
Nils moved to Trondheim many years ago. Since then, he has definetily made his mark on the city.
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