Steffen Trannerup: Meet and Greet in Orlando

Hi, I'm Steffen! I'm 36 years old and I've worked at Bonnier Publications in Copenhagen since 2003. I was employed in the marketing department as a project manager, to develop in house sales channels primarily email marketing, and to manage the implementation of an email software. Now I work as a commercial development specialist in the Online Marketing Department, but for the next three months, I'm gonna work at Bonnier Corporation in Orlando, Florida!

I started at the new office just 8-9 hours after arriving in Orlando. I work with the Email Marketing Team in Winter Park, Orlando, and during the first week I must have shaken hands with about 50 different people — all very welcoming and sweet, who made it easy and comfortable to start in a new environment and a new culture.  

The first task I've had is directly related to my work back home: to learn and experience how the Email Marketing Team here conducts and manage all email marketing for all magazine brands throughout the US. By the end of September, I will deliver a review of the strategy, the procedures, and the tools — including recommendations based on my similar experiences on this field.    

After the first week observing how the team here works and understanding the workflows, what stroked me the most was the huge amount of different mail out that the team is able to create, test and send. It is truly amazing and is a proof of a systematically and well organized procedure and work schedule.

The way the team here works and the strategic and technical approach is different compared to how we work in Copenhagen, but both the goals and the challenges related to reaching these goals are remarkably alike. That is why I'm really thrilled about getting this task, that will indeed give me inspiration and ideas to help develop our work back home. Also it is a task where I feel I have something to offer, which is a good feeling to be given when starting in a new place.  

When leaving the nice air-conditioned office and exiting to the sticky, humid and hot air of Orlando, life is a little bit like being on vacation. Though living in a quiet area of the city and not seeing that many tourists here, Orlando is most of all the home of Disney World, Sea World and Universal Studios. So far, me and a visiting friend only went to Disney once to have dinner, but I will be spending a whole Saturday or Sunday with Mickey Mouse and his friends.

Walking out the door in the morning is like opening a newly finished dishwasher, so the first Saturday we took the roof of the Mustang and headed for Cocoa Beach to get a little sea breeze and do some kite boarding, but ... Regarding wind this is probably the most quiet time of the year, so we surfed a little on the fairly small waves and enjoyed the sun and the cold beers on the pier. The many lakes in Orlando are often used for kite boarding and water sports, but the alligators and 6 kinds of deadly snakes are not always that happy with the company, so I'll try to stay out of their way :)

This week I've meet the other GROW participant Ylva from Homeenter, and I also met Ebba who is here on an internship — both Swedish. Thursday night we went out with some of the guys from the office who introduced me to the sneaky bars of downtown Orlando. I think everybody had a really hard day Friday... I know I had! This Saturday, Zach who is a photographer, Ylva, Ebba and I made a little road trip to Tampa for a fantastic concert with "The Boss" — Bruce Springsteen. And that is pretty much the Florida review so far.

See y'all!