Happy Tuesday…. I think? I’m honestly still struggling to remember what day it is! Regardless, today was full of world-class innovation from Qualisys and SKF.
The first stop of the day was at Qualisys, who’s mission is “to be the world’s preferred partner in creating performance-enhancing motion capture solutions through technical excellence. We met with Magnus Sjölin, (Market Area Director), Helen Rydén, (Marketing and Communications Manager), and Katarina Hjältman (Support Engineer). They spent the morning teaching us about their products, explaining they recent marketing strategies, and then showed us a demo.
On the surface, it looks like Qualisys is simply selling cameras (approximately 2,500 per year), but it’s actually so much more! Qualisys’ cameras are made for motion capture (or as Magnus likes to say, mo-cap). There are three primary application segments for mo-cap cameras; Life Science, Engineering, and Entertainment (this is the newest segment for Qualisys, but has the most potential). They have many uses, but some examples are creating animation or analyzing techniques of athletes. So who’s buying them? According to Magnus, their main customers are mostly research centers who then sell the data and analysis they conduct.
Since they have such a niche target market, their primary marketing tactic is attending exhibitions. Advertising globally with print is too expensive, so exhibitions help them reach audiences with more potential. When Helen came to Qualisys, she made it her mission to bring consistency to all marketing and communication channels. That is how the Qualisys brand came to be what we know it to be today.
Before lunch, we got to see a few demonstrations. The first was an analysis of a classmate’s running form and the second was showing how mo-cap can be used to create animation. Check out the pics below!
Next, we went to SKF, a global leader in ball bearing production. Anyone who knows me, probably thinks I wouldn’t have been excited for this visit. To be honest, I really wanted excited going into it, but after meeting Lars Werner, it was impossible to NOT be hyped about ball bearings. He’s been with the company for over 10 years and it is obvious how much pride he has in every aspect of the company.
After learning more about the trial and error style history of SKF, Lars led us through a tour of the plant. When you picture a ball bearing manufacturing plant, I guarentee it’s the exact opposite of SKF. The plant floor was so clean you could practically eat off of it and a lot of the production was being done by robots. Even the forklifts were ran using artificial intelligence (AI).
Coffee Break
I don’t think anyone was surprised to see a high-tech coffee machine at Qualisys. I went with a traditional cafe latte.
Cocktail Hour
We decided to have a night in after the long day, so we grabbed a few cans of cider from the Systembloaget (Swedish Liquor Store) and sat in the lobby to work on our blogs and catch up on the current episode of The Bachelor.
Today’s Top Three
1. Ball bearing are used in literally everything and nobody really knows what they are.
2. Since they don’t use cents in Swedish Krona, you just round up whatever is on the price tag in Swedish stores.
3. Canadian boys don’t watch The Bachelor
The C-Suite: Coffee & Cocktails 
Ball bearings who would have thought!
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Wow, crash test was awesome, a real eye opener.
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