Young Crew Finland dived into Global YC Community in South Africa

Young Crew Finland has been renewing its activities this year and many new active YC Board Members have joined the Finnish community of young project professionals. In Young Crew the international community is a vital part of all activities and YC members highly appreciate the global networking opportunities. Young Crew Global Conference is an annual global meeting and seminar open for all YC members and this year it was held in Cape Town, South Africa. Young Crew Finland’s Chair Elsa Paasilinna and Vice Chair Milla Ranta headed off to the beautiful city of Cape Town to network and learn more about both project management as well as developing national YC activities for YC in Finland.

Heading off – snow and ice in Helsinki, four seasons in a day in Cape Town

We started our journey to Cape Town from winter conditions at Helsinki-Vantaa airport. First an evening flight of 3 hours to London Heathrow, 1,5 hours for changing terminals and then an 12-hour red-eye flight to Cape Town. A long flight took its toll and the first day at Cape Town we were casually wandering around and headed to bed early for our first conference day. We had heard from the organizers that there could be four seasons in one day at Cape Town and we noticed that the weather could change from warm and sunny to rain and wind in an instant.

Day 1 – A warm welcome to the YC community

We started our first day at the DHL Stadium in Cape Town VA Waterfront area. Immediately we felt warmly welcome in the group and greeted a lot of new people. This is one of the reasons we like to use the word “community” instead of “network” – it really feels like we´re a big family, all warmly looking after each other, openly sharing ideas, having fun and growing together. There must be many reasons for this, but it probably helps that we are all active learners, connected by the drive to improve ourselves and the world in a meaningful way, one project at a time.

Our “team hoodies” with PRY and IPMA YC FI logos got a lot of positive attention. What a good coincidence that we just thought of ordering those for our YC team a few months earlier! The hoodies were fresh from the print, only worn once before at the Finnish PM Days in October. We have the feeling that quite many other YC Boards will be ordering their hoodies in the near future...

Because of the weather forecast, some of the program was re-arranged just a day before the conference started. This meant that the first day included the welcoming words from the Mayor of Cape Town, Geordin Hill Lewis, visit to the Table Mountain, as well as a dinner at a local wine farm. Not a bad start for a conference! The Mayor of Cape Town, being also a YC member himself, started campaigning to be the mayor at the age of 33. He had some inspiring words for us young professionals: do your homework, do your very best in the role you’re currently in, and trust yourself – new opportunities will arise.

Day 2 – in search of personal and professional growth

The second day was about growth – how to set goals and pursue them, how to push your borders and how to maintain emotional sustainability. We also learned about modern practices and PM values. What an inspiring day indeed!  During the day we were taken into a tour of the DHL Stadium – including all the areas where the players prepare themselves to the match, where they are tested and how they enter the Stadium. We also saw the VIP areas and the top levels of the Stadium. For the evening we were offered tickets to the local Rugby game at the DHL Stadium. There was no action missing from this day.

Day 3 – Self-reflection workshop and project game “Mission Possible”

Third day started with a masterclass of self-reflection on resilience and courage with Tim Jaques, IPMA Global Director for Special Interest Group (SIG). After the inspiring workshop, we divided into multi-national teams and started the project competition. Surely there has to be a project in an event like this! The teams had a few hours to complete a project charter and produce a video of their insights gained during the conference. You can see or teams’ videos on PRY’s Youtube channel. After the project we headed to the Two Oceans Aquarium for a gala dinner and project awards. Elsa’s team won the project awards with their video and Milla’s team gained the second place out of all six teams. Well done Team Finland!

Heading home – bags filled with ideas, connections, and enthusiasm!

We were a bit tired but very happy after the conference and returned home with many new friends and a lot of ideas for the Finnish YC. We have a lot of activities planned for 2023 so stay tuned!

Young Crew is a vibrant cool international premier global network for young professionals, enthusiastic about project management, a platform for young project management professionals and students up to the age of 35.

More about Young Crew Finland: www.pry.fi/toiminta/young_crew

More about the global IPMA YC: https://www.become.pm/

Writers:

Elsa Paasilinna, Head of Development and Digitalization Services, Urban Planning Division, City of Helsinki, Finland

Milla Ranta, Director of Competence development services, Kumura Oy, Finland