Around the world with CultureCatch!

Nov.6th, 2024

Fredrikstad, Norway

🌎 Fabulous to be invited back to my own hometown Fredrikstad, as keynote speaker at the annual big conference day for all leaders, public sectors and industries of the area!  

So impressive to see all the innovation and entrepreneurship on global level going on here - makes me proud!

My keynote title was:

"Trust and Relationships - No business without!"

A few quotes from the feedback:

"Marit was shining on stage" - "Fabulously interesting and inspiring presentation from Marit, CultureCatch®"  - "Thank you for a great, thought provoking key note!" - "Highly inspiring and useful, we were discussing your presentation all evening!"

Thank you, Fredrikstad!

Sept. 26th, 2024

Viking Arena, Stavanger, Norway

250 new SLB (Schlumberger) employees, this time in the fabulous Viking Arena in Stavanger!

Not often we see a great football team practice on the field during a cultural session, is it :-)  

Sep.12th, 2024

Bergen, Norway

🌎 Fun with big gig and 250 people in the audience! 

"People Agility" for the huge, global SLB (Schlumberger), gathering their Scandinavian and offshore employees once a year.

August 23, 2024

Sola Strand Hotell, Stavanger, Norway 

 When switching from being German owned and headquartered in Frankfurt to being British-American owned headquartered in London.... what do you do?

Prepare for the change and differences, of course! This smart management team of Wintershall DEA , now Harbour energy, did just that. 

A great day of general cultural competence, with a deep dive into the characteristics of everything English.... compared to what is typically Norwegian and German.  An already internationally very experienced team seemed to enjoy further learning and truly "going English": Read their evaluation here on Events & Feedback page!  

June 4-5th, 2024

CSL, Andermatt, Switzerland

🌎 Working in beautiful Switzerland again - coming home!

Andermatt is one spectacularly beautiful train ride away from Zurich airport. And what a village it is! The Andermatt Radisson can only be strongly recommended as well.

Training hashtagcultural awareness and competence with 15 people from the  global company CSL Vifor was a treat.

🎯 Two teams, a mix of Germans, Swiss-Germans, Swiss-French, Italian, Latvian and Bulgarian brilliant minds, made the perfect group.
🎯 Focussing on building a global cultural understanding, with a special focus on the cultures of Australia, US, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, China, Portugal, Germany and France.......   We could have spent weeks on this!!! But managed a lot:

✅ Personal and team cultural profiling gave material for self awareness and discussions, internal team communication and teamwork as well as how to best approach and build trust outwards with other key stakeholders.

March 11-12th, 2024

University of South Eastern Norway 

  Teaching at master studies si both meaningful and a pure joy. Preparing is better than repairing! Intensive training days teaching cross-cultural competence and a global mindset, preparing these young potential leaders at the master "Strategy and Leadership" for work life, most likely very international and culturally diverse. Their interest, curiosity and gratitude is very motivating and I will follow them closely through exams and into business life. 

Feb.27th, 2024

Norsk Hydro HQ, Oslo, Norway

I´m impressed by this global, corporate team  from our Norwegian pride and giant, Norsk Hydro (aluminium). A great mix of sixteen highly competent people from Finland 🇫🇮, Norway 🇳🇴 , UK (England) 🇬🇧 , France 🇫🇷 , Germany 🇩🇪 , Portugal 🇵🇹 , Brazil 🇧🇷 and India 🇮🇳 , holding a lot of international and cross-cultural experience. 

Helping them put their experiences into a framework and navigation system, work on own cultural self awareness and puzzle fragments of insights into a meaningful, sharedunderstanding and mindset, has been very rewarding. 

🔥 The “team treasure chest” is wide open, so inclusion and productivity can flourish at their best! 
Thank you Hydro for this intense, meaningful day, with equal shares of hard competence-building work - and laughter!

Feb.20th, 2024

Feusisberg, Zurich, Switerland 

🎯 Just marvellous to be able to give a new global team the chance to be culturally agile from start!

Thanks to CSL and Global Procurement for assigning me for a cross-cultural teambuilding with the new, global Support & Excellence team.

Featuring Sweden, England, Portugal, Spain, Argentina, Colombia, US, Iran, India and Australia!

And what a treat to work back at my beloved Panorama Spa Resort Hotel at Feusisberg, Switzerland! An "old home", with the most magical view over Lake Zürich!

 ➡️ 2024

certainly started off well

in a motivating way, being recognised with this Award!

I will do my utmost to live up to it,

for the best learning and results

for my clients and partners! 

Dec.6th, 2023 

🎯Being in charge of global employee mobility requires a global mindset and being "on your marks" with your cultural competence. Yara Internationals Global Mobility Team walks the extra mile!

📈 By investing in cross-culture training, they take themselves to the next level, making sure they can guide and prepare their customers - expats all over the world - the best possible way!
🌎 And when your company is based in 61 locations, covering every possible cultural category ….. that’s not exactly “a walk in the park”
We covered
📌 cultural profiling, individually and on team level,
📌 a global cultural overview,
📌 mapping the global Yara …and
📌 went into depth on differences and consequences for
👉 hashtagcommunication styles, hashtagmeetings, time perception, hashtagteam hashtagcollaboration, hashtagleadership styles and hashtvalues.

                                                   🌎Let’s help cultural diversity live up to its potential!

Dec.5th, 2023, 

Asker, Norway 

Fun day at work! Launching my new training concept "Nårsk-Deutsch Crash Kurs für Dummies" ➡ Very serious business despite sounding like a joke!📈

How to support a Norwegian leadership team who's production site has been acquired by a German company?

➡️ Seen relative in a global perspective, Norway and Germany may not seem too different in work cultures and behaviour, but especially since we think so, the traps hit hard. 
➡️ There are many and huge differences causing a lot of confusion and problems. And those we addressed today!
In sum: 
Key characteristics of Norwegians and Germans, the various layers of culture, what we share and where we differ - and how to bridge the differences in the best and most result-oriented way. According to the teams feedback: Super useful, interesting and great fun!

Nov.21st, 2023 

Great day with 2 lectures for the Norwegian, global giant Hydro, in their Oslo HQ!

First a big, open session for free participation, then a more specific and practical for Corporate HR and the global HR-community.

I also took this opportunity to get a videofilm recorded, having the excellent video photographer Daniel Danilowitch from SimpleFilms present. Such an inspiring and intense day, also receiving great feedback!

🌎Let’s help cultural diversity live up to its potential!

Nov.16th, 2023, 

Copenhagen, Denmark 

🙄😱🤕 When you like a drowned cat reach your client in flooded central Copenhagen at dawn....
😍 But all is well, that ends well!
11 brave Danish souls fought the forces of nature (like myself, a tough Norwegian viking) and battled their way to the office. Thank you for coming, and engaging! What a great group of people, in combination with the 60+ that joined in online, also from Stockholm, Helsinki and Oslo. Great to work with US owned insurance company AIG!

🎯 Any day (even the wettest) is a good one to focus on
👉 cultural awareness, self awareness and team agility
👉 and though the four Nordic countries have a lot in common, seen relatively and compared to the rest of the world, there is so much to learn about one another
👉 so much to learn about how others may – rightly or wrongly – perceive ME and my well intended behavior
👉 so much to have fun with and adjust to become even better cross-Nordic teams!

Nov.1st, 2023 

🎉🎂 CultureCatch® turns 10! And helping multicultural teams and companies improving their cooperation longterm, is truly worth celebrating!

10 years today since I skydived:

🥇 Unique training concepts developed and refined over time, an original mix of leadership skills, motivation research and cultural acumen.
🏆 Resulting in so far four awards for quality and value to international leadership, cross-cultural teams and M&A’s.
I have been fully dedicated in following my value mission; Creating ❤️‍🔥IMPACT❤️‍🔥 for each client:

Insights  Motivation  Perspectives  Awareness  Competence  Team-success 

🌹Thank you to every single client who has trusted me during the past 10 years!
And a Very Warm Welcome to YOU who will be part of the next 10,
📌 because you want to increase the success of your international teams!
Nothing counts more than giving each client the best
possible support – for YOUR specific teams and situations.
For YOU to get exactly what you need to create results and inclusion.

🌎Let’s help cultural diversity live up to its potential!

June 14-16th 2023 - United Nations, Geneva Switzerland  

A privilege! - giving leadership training at United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) in Geneva. I feel so honoured and inspired by running workshops like this, with participants from foreign affairs or diplomatic bodies covering such a wide spectre of cultural diversity (Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Iraq, Nigeria, Rwanda, Kongo, Barbados and Germany), perspectives and experiences. And I love the United Nations with its beautiful buildings and surroundings. 
🌟 This being the final, certification module of the 1 year Executive Diploma in Diplomatic Practice, it's a pleasure to be sharing my "Leadership essentials" program. 

Teddy: "Yesterday was a FANTASTIC day!Thank You Marit, It was a privilege and an honor to take part in this training with you. Such a wonderful person and leader. The training was very enriching."

Raveen: ""To achieve our best potential, we all need some inspirational training and direction. And I am so happy I found that in YOU! Thank you so much!" Lynn: "Thank you for sharing your knowledge leadership, honestly if was one of the best workshops Ive ever had!" 

May 15th, 2023 - Jurmala, Latvia

"It's All About People" with the shipping company OSM Maritime Group again! This time in the coastal pearl of Jurmala on the Latvian coast.

And if ever there existed a perfect conference room.....here it is! 10th floor, own terrace, view all over Jurmala and the Baltic Sea! 50 engaged and grateful sea captains and chief engineers..... mainly from Russia, Eastern Europe and the Philippines, sailing all around the world, in charge of the huge cargo vessels with staff coming from all corners of the world.  Each ship, a miniatyr globe! And cultural competence will help them run it all smoothly!

May 11th 2023 - Oslo Børs, Norway 

Such a fun job - the Kick-off of a Womens Network one year program at Oslo Børs, for talented female employees at Euronext Securities and NordPool! A Scandinavian mixed team of high potentials, that it was a huge inspiration to lead through a 3 hours session of self reflection, self awareness, leadership agility and achievement motivation knowledge. Many Kindereggs were thrown as rewards for excellent answers and input!

Feedback from Sarah:

"Thank you so very much for your lecture yesterday, it was so very interesting and so much to learn from it ⭐!

and from Julie: "Thank you so much for this opportunity and the great kick-off with Marit. She really gave me a lot to think about!"

May 9th, 2023 - Kristiansand, Norway

Maybe coolest venue ever - "The Royal Pirate Theatre of Captain Sabeltann" in the big pirate town of Kristiansand Zoo! Quite fabulous. And quite fabulous - and very male - audience as well, for the 3 hours training (in Norwegian) on "Collaboration and Leadership in a Multi-Cultural Organisation" - for appr 150 oil industry leaders in the global, American owned company NOV.

Bright people in a magical environment!  

May 2nd 2023 - Copenhagen, DK 

Springtime in Wonderful Copenhagen, and "It's All About People"! In beautiful Hellerup, with 23 leaders from the shipping company OSM Maritime Group.

👉 17.000 employees from 70 nationalities, spread over 700 vessels and 22 global locations... Under the heading "Building Cultural Competence for Optimal Collaboration", we had good learning and good laughs.

Feedback; "Thank you Marit for a truly unique day! You provided fantastic stories, so much wisdom and absolutely lots of light-bulb moments💡I really look forward to our next event and to learn more from your vast experience in M&A, integration and working in culturally diverse organizations💐"

April 2023 - OSLO Science Park

"Building Cultural, Value-based Competence for Optimal Team Collaboration"

A real vitamin pill to run a full days workshop with these great people!  My share of adding value and support to their crucial and successful work in developing tailored vaccines and meds for cancer.

Nykode Therapeutics (previously known as Vaccibody)s CMC team of 28 people, is a very exciting contributor in the medical science landscape. Proud of them! 

 March. 2023 - campus Ringerike 

University of SouthEastern Norway, Economy and Leadership master, Motivation and Mastery module

Lovely to be back at a university, working with master students! Two full days of building intercultural competence.

Always so inspiring and meaningful to train young and upcoming next generations leaders (who even bring me chocolate!!!)  Ambitious and smart young people who wants to prevent the gravest mistakes in their international jobs, instead of trying to repair the damage later. As one of the brilliant students stated: 

"Marit gave us tools and competence to best manage cross-cultural diverse teams and organisations. I can’t wait to use this knowledge actively from the moment I enter the offices of my first full-time job".  🌟 🌟🌟 Music to my ears!

March. 2023 - OSLO, NORWAY

"Cultural Diversity in the Company -

Challenges and Opportunities"

was the workshop topic I was so privileged to run at the annual board meeting in Norways Association for International Companies.

80 companies are members, 30 present at the annual meeting - and those were the biggest ones, all with HQs in Norway and employees, offices and/or production sites in 30+++up to a hundred countries.

A marvellous opportunity to create insights, competence and development plans, as well as discuss and share experiences! 

 Feb. 2023 - PARIS, FRANCE

It´s Valentines💖– it´s Sunny☀️– it´s PARIS🇫🇷!

Such a privilege to train Euronext's  big project core team CA4U for a significant long term company project.

And including Frenchmen, Italians, Portugese, Belgians, Danes, Swedes and Norwegians in the room!
🌟 🌟🌟And here are my stars! 
A team willing to develop and win!  
Wishing them all the best going forward!

Febr. 2023 - OSLO, NORWAY

It's such a treat to talk about cultures in the beautiful, old building of Oslo Stock Exchange, with the employees there!

Cecilie: "Super presentation with very exciting and important topic!"

Ragnhild: "thank you so much for a highly interesting and useful lecture!"

Cathrine: "THANK YOU for a very interesting session filled with eye opening and useful perspectives!"  

 Nov. 2022 - OSLO, NORWAY

In these times of energy crises, the "energy stock exchange" Nord Pool is more than busy - yet they still prioritise getting together in a company meeting, to work on their culture, motivation and strategy. Smart choice and good leadership! And I had the pleasure of speaking to them about "Being a Multi-cultural Company . challenges and opportunities". A great day with 30 nationalities from around the world, snowstorm outside and a conference room called Luftrommet (Airspace)! Felt both airy and spacey! :-)

Sept. 2022 - OSLO, NORWAY

Great to close October with these aspiring and engaged people, from Euronext Securities, Oslo Stock Exchange! A pleasure to  talk about Being an Intercultural Company and the challenges and opportunities in being acquired, getting used to a diverse range of colleagues abroad and new owners. We had so much fun that my speaking time got almost tripled! 

 Sept. 2022 - OSLO, NORWAY

When developing a completely new concept, storyline and keynote speech, its very nerve wrecking to deliver it. Did I nail what they need, will it inspire and make its mark? Then feedback like the below from the organisers afterwards means the world:

“Thank you so much Marit for giving us a truly inspiring and motivational speech in our EU kick off. The way you knotted old fairy tales with today’s challenges and how they are commonly linked with the need for agility was simply amazing. You managed to give colleagues with different daily challenges an understanding of what is needed and how to get there. Sharing your personal experiences gave us a true and solid impression.

Again – thank you from all of us” 

Sept. 2022 - DOHA, QATAR

On mission again for UNITAR! An honour. Back in the Arab world where I so much love to work, in the beautiful surroundings of The Diplomatic Club of Doha. A great pleasure to perform training in leadership essentials to diplomatic staff from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Qatar.

August 2022, COPENHAGEN, DENMARK

Happy to give the 90 minutes keynote at Milestone Productions Global Marketing Meeting, with delegates from 24 countries!

"Play To Win, through Cultural Diversity"

- a highly relevant topic for such a diverse and expansive company.

A great arrangement at the super Scandic Copenhagen Kastrup hotel!

August 2022, SWITZERLAND

Cross-cultural team building in my beloved biotech industry - and back "home" in Switzerland!

Great cross-European team having their strategy meeting in stunningly beautiful Murg, St.Gallon canton, at the gate of the Alps. 

It was a great pleasure working with the Ewopharma AG Business Development team!

May 2022

Some emails coming in make us happier than others...... like THIS ONE from EU Business News, May 24th, 2022!

So immensely proud and grateful for the recognition of the importance and quality of our work. Helping companies prepare, execute and follow-up their mergers and acquisitions in the best possible way is CultureCatch's greatest passion! 

 April, May, June & Sept. 2022

NORWAY

Never seen myself as a "sales person", neither a good seller on my own behalf nor on others....so its a great pleasure to experience the my areas of competence - cultures, communication patterns, negotiations around the world, own motivation engine and how to develop yourself - are highly useful to sales people!

An immense pleasure working with these great guys in an "unusual sales training program" over 4 days, spring 2022. This is the sales team, all Norwegian men, selling highly specialized technical components - butterfly valves for the oil, shipping and LNG industry - all over the world. Super interesting, and such a cool company Norway can be proud of! 

(you can find some of their evaluation quotes under tab "nordic")

 May 2022, VALLETTA, MALTA

There are so many pleasures and rewards in working as a trainer of intercultural business and issues. 

And sometimes that rich life is crowned with weeks like now,  meeting all the others from around the world who also are passionate about the same things, - nearly 300 interculturalists from young student volunteers to the most senior gurus in the field met for our bi-annual SIETAR Europa conference (The Society for Intercultural Education, Training And Research).

Sharing, inspiring, presenting, networking!

In the spectacular, historical La Valletta, Malta!

March 2022, KUWAIT

I count my blessings for being so privileged. Imagine spending a week in Kuwait for the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), on this purposeful assignment.  Jerome Lhost and I have been teaching and discussing gender equality, women’s leadership roles and challenges, cultural differences and key leadership skills with wonderful female leaders from Kuwaits government bodies. Even a couple of brave men respectfully joined the lioness' cave, taking part in shaping the future work life for new generations. Events like this is the reason why my work is my life. And Kuwait City is so worth experiencing!

 March 2022, Oslo

 What could be better than starting the week off by talking about the importance of cultural competence in Inclusion at work?

Not much, in my view..... 

Coming home from a great congress and sunny Algarve could have been hard....but I was lucky to get invited by Kimiya Sajjadi from Big Enough Global, to talk about multiculturalism and diversity in the workplace!  Lovely people, giving great feedback after the session. 

 March 2022, HELSINKI, FINLAND

360 session in the workplace,

a daring and rewarding exercise!

Another fruitful, challenging - yet incredibly full of laughter and humour - team work session with my dear Finnish, brilliant Herantis Pharma team in Helsinki!

Aspects of Indian, Dutch, Norwegian and Russian cultures spice up the Finnish gems :-)  

 Febr.2022, NORWAY

 A great pleasure to be "back at a university"! I haven't lectured students live for a while, and luckily I got this wonderful group of interested and interesting, humorous and smart students at the University of SouthEast Norway, doing their master in Strategy and Leadership. Always a win and competitive advantage when people develop cultural reflections and competence as early as possible in their work and leadership careers!

«En utrolig spennende samling. Må si du er en utrolig engasjerende og flink formidler!"

Madeleine Gundersen, masterstudent 

Dec. 2-3, 2021, NORWAY:

Thrilled to work with this international company headquartered in Oslo, ELOPAK!

Had the honour of training the new Integration Team for their acquisition of the MENA company Naturepak, with production sites in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Morocco. 

Lovely and wise when companies are focussed on conducting mergers with the utmost respect, curiosity and determination to learn - about the new cultures being included in the company as well as for how to make the integration as successful as possible! Marvellous team. 

"Intercultural Business Competence with an

in-depth analysis of Saudi and Moroccan cultures"

Nov. 2021, ÅRHUS, DENMARK:  

A pleasure to be part of Arla's internal training offers and record a video lecture available to young leaders across Europe!

Feedback in Teams Chat:

"Excellent session"!

"Thank you, brilliant lecture"

"Very interesting and motivating!"

"The session was absolutely fantastic, I truly loved it!"

Nov.-21, COPENHAGEN, DENMARK:

Teambuilding with a a wonderful group of brilliant post doc researchers from the highly renowned Denmark Technical University (DTU) Compute!

Great venue: Konventum Højrisgård in Elsinore Denmark, and with the training program title:

"Building Cultural Understanding for Optimal Team Cooperation"

"I very much enjoyed the cultural training event in Helsingør. I have to say that the model you are teaching is brilliant and your approach of conveying it is superb!" (participant Amal's feedback, post doc student from Saudi Arabia) 

Oct. 2021, COPENHAGEN, DENMARK:  

It's simply a marvellous feeling to be back in the Danish conference centres I have always loved, and have so many good memories from! Autumn vibes with 60 brilliant Danish and French listeners in KolleKolle Conference Hotel outside Copenhagen, speaking about my passion "Culture, Cooperation and Motivation". (no pics of audience due to GDPR)

HR, management and participants feedback: "A great presentation that pinpointed our challenges", "Excellent speech!", "You were referred to all through our strategy day", "I could hear your points being discussed all around in the breaks the rest of the day". Mission completed!

And again - an Award,

what a pleasure! 

Excited about meeting old and new contacts from Switzerland and the Nordic clubs there, for a webinar introducing the cross-cultural field and how to benefit from it!

August 2021, ESPOO, FINLAND:

Finally out of covid travel lockdown - and started with the best possible biotech team and job, in Helsinki! Great people and brilliant venue in the Finnish archipelago. CEO Craig Cook's feedback after 2 days workshop on Culture, Communication and Collaboration: 

"Thank you for superb team cross-cultural training and coaching event last week! It hit all the high points and sweet spots we needed it to; and nailed what we set out to do (and more)! Big kudos to you, well prepared and superbly executed! 👌👍🥇"

 June 17th, 2021: 

Well, look at that! 

CultureCatch awarded by EU Business News, as

Best Global Cross-Cultural Business Training Specialists 2021! 

And we will proudly live up to that, securing the best results for you!

"

Training studio in the living room! Sad to miss out on travels to lovely destinations, but it IS possible to build real rapport virtually! "Women's Leadership" e-workshop, May 18-20, 2020 organised by the UN (Unitar), with some really great women from around the world. Here concludes participant Janis Underwood, USA/Spain, a few days after the e-workshop:

"I had the pleasure of attending a 3-day online e-workshop on women’s leadership with Marit. Marit has a great way of creating an environment of trust within an intercultural setting and I found her use of break out sessions extremely useful in helping us learn the material. Marit as a presenter/trainer is extremely professional, very engaging and naturally generates a high level of interest in her material. I am very impressed with her ability to create an in-person classroom-like experience online. Being able to do that is a special talent that not many trainers have".

A new challenge in these Covid-19 times with cancellations of all f2f meetings and training events:

Going online with teaching and team development!

Several upcoming events in May-20 to be done over Zoom, starting with leadership teaching for master students at Stirling University, organised by the UN (Unitar). Exciting!

Febr.2020, VILNIUS, LITHUANIA

And speaking at Convene Baltic Travel congress was a wonderful experience! Says the organiser Galina Bukowska after the event: "We had the pleasure of having Marit for our international event Convene 2020 Educational Academy (www.convene.lt) which took place in Vilnius, Lithuania during February 12-13, 2020. 45 exiting minutes was not enough, the audience was full and many people asked about the contacts. The topic is very actual in our industry and in today’s globalization world. I hope we will have the chance to invite Marit again!"

Happily preparing for going to beautiful Vilnius, treasuring the opportunity to speak to 100+ congress delegates from the travel & tourism industry. Looking much forward to the networking and exchanges and to spread the message of the importance of cultural competence!

BUSINET 33rd Conference,

Belgrade, Serbia, November 2019

CrossCulture on the agenda!

and lots of fruitful networking and

brainstorming for future projects with various international business schools.

JT Foxx Event.....

A very intense, inspiring and useful day -

CultureCatch "sharpening the axe"

in order to be an even

better speaker and partner to clients!

June 14, 2019, COPENHAGEN, DENMARK:

What a day! With great people from Denmark and Germany, merging into a new and stronger KLIFO. An honour to be the only external guest, speaking about cultural differences and how to bridge dem and create success from diversity!

Lots of laughter, and tips for how to build the future.

Says Alejandra Mørk, Owner and CEO:

"Thanks to Marit for an excellent presentation of cultural differences at the KLIFO Day 2019!"

June 2019, LEUVEN, BELGIUM:

It has been an exciting and interesting congress week in Leuven with "the intercultural tribe"; SIETAR (Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research. CultureCatch designed and facilitated a session highly popular among the participants: A storytelling "Campfire Session", where four of the most prominent leading interculturalists of today agreed to join, and in each their corner had groups they shared their life story, experience, ideas, challenges and thoughts with. The four mentors were Prof. Dr. Milton Bennett, Diversophy-founder Dr. George Simons, author, speaker and Lewis Model-developer Richard D. Lewis and Prof. Dr. Marie-Therese Claes. What a team!