As the sun set in a cloudless sky, people flocked to the streets of Copenhagen. The city’s annual Culture Night guaranteed a full house when the Confederation of Danish Industry (DI) opened its doors to curious souls once again this year. And there were plenty of wide eyes among guests.

“We’ve experienced lots of things we’ve never seen before, and it has been really interesting,” says Biljana Celebija, who attended Culture Night with a friend in the hopes of learning something new. And she could confirm that this was certainly the case after visiting the companies at DI.

The 5,688 people who stopped by Industriens Hus had the chance to get to know eleven completely different companies who all demonstrated what it is they do best. Guests could control a metro, take a virtual reality trip to space, design hearing aids and learn much more about what makes Danish businesses unique.

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Positive feedback for companies

It wasn’t just visitors who learned something new. So did the companies themselves. One of them was the just two-year old virtual reality consulting company, Virsabi, which enjoyed plenty of attention and positive feedback.

“Many visitors have been very enthusiastic about our technology. Every time they tried out our virtual reality glasses, they told us about what they experienced. And that’s something we take note of,” says Michael Harboe, CEO at Virsabi.

The other ten companies enjoyed the same enthusiasm and positive reactions throughout the busy evening.

“I think it’s valuable for companies to interact so directly with so many people who say what they think and ask whatever pops into their heads. This gives them completely immediate and unbiased feedback on what they supply every day,” says Marion Hannerup, Deputy Director General, Corporate Communications at DI.

That’s something they can use to develop their products, but they can also be proud, because they impressed a lot of visitors over the course of the evening, notes the communications director.

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Highlighting apprentices

A new part of Culture Night this year was the apprentice zone at DI. Four companies had brought along their apprentices to this brand new zone, where Culture Night participants could ask about vocational educations and the career opportunities they subsequently open up at companies.

“Danish companies are yearning for more skilled workers. Far too few young people are choosing vocational educations today. That’s why it’s important that companies send out their talented apprentices to talk to the community. The apprentices themselves are the best advertisement for the many opportunities a vocational education opens up, so we were glad to have them showing off their skills at Culture Night, where many parents also stop by,” says Marion Hannerup.

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