ETSY European captain summit .

Team captains from around Europe at the ETSY office

    In  January I received an application form for an European team captain summit. I filled out the form and sent back, but thought little more of it since my team ( Made In Norway ) only had about 30 members and was started not even a year ago.

    It was a happy surprise when I received a convo saying I had a place at the summit, which would take place the 15-16 th of March in Berlin, Germany.

    I wasn’t sure what to expect when I packed a little suitcase and left early in the morning last Friday, leaving a little note in each of the kids lunch box… just in case, with the sad story of the missing Malaysian flight lingering in the back of my mind.

    I arrived in Berlin in the middle of the day, took a little walk, ate something, then returned to the hotel for a well deserved nap.

    A facebook page had been set up for the attendees beforehand and we had agreed to meet up and go to dinner together. So later that evening a lot of ladies started going around the hotel lobby asking strangers ‘ Are you here for the ETSY summit ?’.

    Turns out we were 29 lady captains from all over Europe and even Israel. We had a lot to talk about, our teams, our shops, our families, pets and countries we lived in.

    At about 9.00 am on Saturday morning we all walked up a good 4 flight of stairs to an event room that had been set up to accommodate the two days seminar. A tote bag with a captain badge, name badge, notebooks, etsy sticker and pen was waiting for each of us. There we met several ETSY administration personnel which we recognised from the convos and emails we receive and later we were joined by other ETSY admin who came especially for the event from the US and Australia.

    After breakfast and an ice breaker activity we were ready to start ! 

    The next two days were filled with workshops,  and presentations from team Captains about setting up a pop-up shop, organizing events, fighting against rogue postal services, motivation, local teams, country wide teams, etc…

    The last day we had a behind-the-scene peek at how ETSY technicians work to keep the server and platform running, then question and answer time with Moishe.

    I was the newest team captain and the one with the so far smallest team, and to be honest I had little idea of what a team could be like. I have read many blog post about team events and activities on the ETSY blog, but somehow it all seemed so ‘ far away’, like ‘ It’s them, not us !’. So this was a very fascinating experience to meet other, more ‘expert’ team captains and to learn about the events they hold, how they organize themselves, how they team work together with their leaders and help new sellers to set up shops and get a feeling of being part of a bigger crafters community.

Moishe from codeascraft.com

    One thing that I must say here is that in two whole days I heard very little about income, making sales, money and such. It was all about the community spirit, of helping crafters achieve their goals of setting up their own businesses and the organizing of team events to spread the word about ESTY, and keep the sellers inspired, motivated and helping new sellers to set up their own shop.

    On Saturday night ETSY treated us to a wonderful dinner, then the next day when the summit was over we were invited to visit the ETSY office in Berlin for cake and coffee…. Unfortunately this is where I had to run and catch the subway-train-flight-train to home…. Where I finally arrived at 00.40 on Monday.

ETSY office in Berlin

A little peek at the office.

-                   - Did you know that some of the ETSY admin. Have shops of their own, which they work on in their free time ?

-              - On average each new seller, brings in 8 new buyers.

Photo by:  http://www.marlenmueller.com/

Photo by: https://www.facebook.com/TeamEtsyNantes

Susannah explaining about the ETSY school. Photo by: https://www.facebook.com/NafsikaJewelry

 

The brighton team in the UK. Photo by: Lyndsey James

 

Active teams around Europe. Photos by: https://www.facebook.com/NafsikaJewelry