During the weekend of 14–15 December an initiative that is part of Christmas City Gothenburg gave locals a chance to sit down and get to know a stranger at the Central Station. To break the ice and pave the way for stimulating conversations, they were given specially prepared questions to ask each other.

To encourage residents of Gothenburg to join in and talk to each other, several meetings between strangers were filmed beforehand. To watch the subtitled videos, check out: goteborg.com/gbgtalks 

“Our aim is to get more people to discover and choose Gothenburg, and to help make Gothenburg a sustainable destination in every way. We are convinced that meaningful conversations lead to greater tolerance and understanding of each other,” says Peter Grönberg, CEO of Göteborg & Co.

Gbg Talks puts the emphasis on human encounters and also aims to promote organisations that work with such issues, such as Språkvän Göteborg (language mentoring), Stadsmissionen (Gothenburg City Mission), Kulturkompis (Culture Buddies) and Kompis Sverige (Buddy Sweden).

Christmas City Gothenburg is now in its 16th successive year and runs from 15 November to 6 January. A wide range of activities, from illuminations to Christmas markets, concerts, gift shopping and Christmas at Liseberg, attract residents of Gothenburg and visitors to the city during November and December.