Spot on Spotify

When you try something awesome for the first time you just want to do it again and again.

It can be bungy jumping, falling in love, get wine tipsy or solve a complex programming problem. I never thought attending a tech conference would be one of those things.
Is it extremely geeky to feel this way?

”If you could bring only one thing to a deserted island, what would you bring? ”

Is a question which is equally likely to be asked in an interview to the Swedish soap opera “Paradise Hotel” as in an interview for a job. I would without doubt bring my Spotify account.
No matter what situation life throws at you –music can make it better.

”Have a soundtrack in everything you do”

is a great way to express how I feel about music. I have Spotify to thank for the fact that my 10 000 very legally downloaded songs are stored on a dusty portable hard drive in a drawer that never gets opened. Downloads are indeed a chapter of my life that I will happily forget about.

If you have not noticed this by now, I love music. I am also very fascinated by what we can create with today’s technology. Spotify naturally falls into the category of companies I would love to work for one day.

I applied for a summer internship there once, guess a few smarter people did the same thing because I did not get it. When I heard that Spotify was about to organize a tech conference for students I instantly applied.

The fact that I finished my application with a link to this clip:

is probably the reason I stod out and got accepted.

During two days in September 101 students from universities across the country gathered at Spotify’s headquarter in Stockholm. The concept was simple but brilliant.

All students had to follow the participant manifesto, displayed in the picture above. The days were filled with inspring talks, workshops, fika and free time to mingle with other students, speakers and Spotify employees.

Many companies love to say that they are a family and bla bla, commercial bullshit. Spending time at the Spotify office, I got a “peace, love and understanding”- vibe. On top of that people were overwhelmingly friendly, smart and encouraging. It only makes me want to work there even more. I live for the whole “peace, love and understanding” thing.

The talks were of a wide variety covering everything between:

”How to achieve the dreams you didn’t know you had by trying things you didn’t know you liked by allowing yourself to try, think and feel yourself instead of listening to other people”

An inspirational life lesson/talk by Navid Modiri about not taking career advise from your mother or the guy at the employment office.

and

”Pipes, one-liners and Python”

Jon Åslund show casing how to sort all the mp3s in the world among other things I did not quite grasp.

During the conference I collected quotes in a little diary. Not sure why I took the role as some sort of poetic diary person … very weird… How ever this is a few of them:

”All the optimist got eaten by lions, only the pessimist are left, that is a problem”

– Jan Henriksson, Entreprenur at SelfLeaders

”If you have legal access to children, read books for them in order to practice your presentation skills”

– Chris heilmann, web Evangelist at Mozilla

”We will implement this in toasters, toilet seats or where ever there might be wifi in the future”

– Nils Montan, Spotify Connect team

”Curious individuals are probably the best people in the world”

– Daniel Ek, CEO at Spotify

I won a pair of wireless headphones for a photo I uploaded to Twitter. Finally being addicted to social media is starting to pay of. They are absolutely brilliant although it have happened that I am half way to school when they become silent, because my phone is still at home…

The conference finished of with an amazing after party. Featuring live acts by Beatrice Eli, Frantic Sundays and Jamarill. The party also involved lots of Bacardi, fake tattoos, a photo booth, FREE FLOW of ice cream and heaps of fun.

Man, nerds can party!

I left Stockholm with lots of inspiration, many new friends in the contact list, an ego boost and a growing longing to graduate and start working for real.

Thank you Spotify for bringing great minds together.

//Sofster
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6bP_etSXHM

The beautiful photos were taken by Henrik Björkman at Twenty Ten