Well, today was the first early wake up of the trip with the meeting time at 8am. However, everyone made it down with time to eat breakfast in the hotel. We got on a bus to drive to Limassol, the biggest port city in Cyprus, and also the home of Medochemie, the company we were meeting with there. On the bus ride there, I flipped back and forth between looking at the landscape of Cyprus and napping. While I was admiring the environment, I realized that it reminded me a lot of Sedona, Arizona. They both have mountains (although the ones in Cyprus are much smaller) and they have short trees and shrubs as opposed to towering trees. I found this interesting because  even though Arizona is landlocked and Cyprus is an island, they have very similar environments. 

At Medochemie, we first watched a presentation that consisted of a short company introduction, an overview of the quality assurance process, and an overview of the supply chain. Medochemie is a pharmaceuticals company that makes generic brand medicine. Their mission statement centered around making pharmaceuticals globally available at a lower price while also being sustainable. For quality assurance, we talked about the very strict guidelines that need to be followed called  Good Manufacturing Practice which are set by the EU. Following the GMP perfectly is essential to their product being fit for sale on global markets. As for the supply chain, there are three main aspects that they talked about: strategic, tactical, and operational. Strategic is the long term, overarching plan. Then tactical is slightly shorter term plan. Finally, there the operational plans which have multiple parts which range from monthly outlooks to almost day-by-day plans. We also got a tour of their storage facility which has three sections: one for things needed consistently, one for products needed less consistently, and one to restock the first two. They were stored in a warehouse that, while it didn’t have a huge footprint, was very tall. The boxes were stacked all the way up to ceiling and space is used efficiently so they can keep as much as possible in there. 

Then we took the bus back to UNIC where we ate lunch and met with Wargaming. We went to the dining hall and, I’m going to be honest, it was some of the best dining hall food I have ever had. We had about an hour and half before the next meeting so we were able to sit outside in the beautiful weather and relax and chat which was very enjoyable. Afterwards, we went to a lecture hall to have a discussion with two representatives from Wargaming, an international gaming company. It has made games such as World of Tanks and World of Planes. Once again, we were first given a company introduction. Then they walked through the process of bringing a game to the market. Generally, the steps are idea, rudimentary prototype (such as a board game version simply to see if people might find the game interesting), proposal, prototyping (designing the actual game), feedback, repeat. This will go on until a satisfactory end product is reached. One of the things that he touched on was how some companies gauge interest for a game before the game has been made. They will put up ads for a game that does not exist and see how much people interact with the ad. This allows companies to see how popular the game might be if they were to release something similar. It also helps to save money being prototyping prices have become astronomical for even just one iteration. I found this really interesting because I would have never considered the idea of marketing something that doesn’t actually exist yet. Even though, I do not really know that much about video games, I still found it intriguing to learn about the process behind them. 

After we arrived back at the hotel, we went into the New City to explore some shops and eat dinner. Afterwards, we explored a little then headed back to the hotel. I was pretty tired from the day so I was excited to relax before bed. Tomorrow, the plan is to go back to Limassol to visit the port and I am looking forward to being the near water here for the first time.