This week’s visit to the Stockholm Seniors’ Fair (Seniorsmässan) was a great experience for us in Wellbe, being still a fresh company in Sweden.
The idea to establish and gradually increase our presence on this potentially big market has been discussed for some time, but then Bojan, one of our confidants and, hopefully, future partners, sent us a mail with information about the Seniorsmässan and the decision was swiftly made – the week from 19th to 23rd of October the planned visit will take place.
We prepared for our visit by identifying a number of target organizations and we knew that, once there on the spot, it wouldn’t be a problem to approach these and other interesting organizations and start the discussion.
I found it very useful and informative walking around the Fair’s stands, displaying various areas of interest for the senior population. It has certainly increased my knowledge of their areas of interest: their attitude towards travel, health, music, sport but also various amusing and practical things. I believe that what we have to offer them – attractive health care solutions in Croatia, together with easy access to the destinations that are becoming more and more popular, has sparked their interest.
Besides visiting the obvious stands, such as the Rheumatic association (the corporate magazine of which Wellbe has already published a few advertisements for rheumatic treatments in Croatia), the Diabetes association, the Stroke association…we also visited several seniors’ clubs. PRO, SPF, HSB Omsorg, Blomster fonden we found very interesting and we will actively follow up our discussions with them.
Another important part of our visit was to discuss the co-operation opportunities with travel agencies and tour operators that would have interest in our healthcare products’ offer. This was encouraging and we are looking forward to the first trial trips that might take place this coming spring.
Besides the Fair’s meetings, we dedicated one day to an important area for our healthcare activities – that of occupational health. Wellbe’s strong offer is connected with the corporate world that faces the employees’ health issues, being burnout conditions, stress, pressure and heart risks, physical rehabilitation after injuries and trauma as well as regular health checks. We paid a visit to a potential partner where we presented our case and our interest in the potential to work together with the Swedish corporate sector.
The Wellbe team at the Stockholm Seniors’ Fair was supported by Maria, who came to join us from Lund and her assistance and guidance (not to mention her easy way of communicating with the seniors in their native language) was great and indispensable.
Sadly, there was not much time for visiting the beautiful city of Stockholm this time. However, those short glimpses of the nice, old buildings situated on the number of islands, connected with many bridges and tunnels that enable an interesting traffic flow, all these created an impression of comfort, buzz and amiability.
This impression for me was reinforced by my short but cordial meetings with Milan and Biljana and with my ex-colleague Jenny (who moved to Stockholm to work eight years ago). I have not a moment of doubt that I’d certainly come back.
