Kaffekoppen – the seminar

The popularity of our seminar Kaffekoppen is at a record high, with a number of events held during the last six months. We have looked deep inside the cup to see what the recipe for success is.

– You could say that Kaffekoppen is a reaction to all new trends, models and ways of working, says Erik Sjöberg, the founder of the seminar and into his sixth year as the seminar host. It’s a seminar about people, job satisfaction, passion, amazing possibilities – but also about individual responsibility.

Working together

– At the end of the day the success of an organization does not depend on whether you follow a waterfall based model, are well adapted to agile ways of working – maybe even scaled agile, focus on ADKAR or whether you call a group a team or a tribe. Naturally, good ways of working will increase efficiency. But what truly decides the level of success are the people, their ability to work well together and find great solutions for the benefit of the entire organization.

Kaffekoppen’s original setting was the steering committee meeting – where senior management interacts with a project manager. But the topics covered are relevant in a much broader perspective.

– We often get the feedback that the basic principles covered in Kaffekoppen are exactly what is needed in all teams. Last year we had several Kaffekoppen seminars in general management teams, steering committees for agile portfolio management – or simply as inspiration and eye openers for organization’s in need of new energy.

When you need an energy boost

When the meetings in a team just follow the same old beaten track, the agenda and bureaucracy are the same and meetings are perceived as a waste of time – that’s when Kaffekoppen is a perfect way to boost the energy.

– Kaffekoppen is also a perfect fit for organizations that know deep inside that the best solution moving forward is not yet another way of working with all the latest buzz words.

– Some of our clients have also started giving Kaffekoppen seminars to newly formed teams to give them a flying start.

Kaffekoppen started in 2014 based on a blog post called “The Cup of Coffee before the first Steering Committee Meeting”. Erik was contacted by PMI and asked if he could host a two hour evening seminar based on the content of that blog post.

– Of course I said yes, but also that two hours is a lot of time for just one blog post. So I proposed covering a handful of other blog posts that also focused on the interaction between a steering committee and a project manager. And that’s how the seminar was born.

Kaffekoppen from five to well over 100 participants

The first seminar was held at Park Inn in Solna, just outside Stockholm. It attracted a large crowd that gave very positive feedback. Since then the seminar has been in constant demand.

– We’ve held Kaffekoppen in small groups of just five to six participants as well as in the form or large motivational seminars for more than 100 people.

– Many organizations have asked for the seminar on repeat – up to five times. The reason is simply that previous participants spread the word and their colleagues contact us and say “we just have to hear what this is all about!”

– The feedback and reviews have been amazing, and once we scored 4.9 on a scale from one to five. But honestly, returning customers who ask for yet another seminar for their colleagues make us even more happy and proud. Only then do we know for sure that the good reviews can be taken seriously.