Closed-Sessions Workshop Day: Evaluation of potential cases
On Thursday 20 April, GOInternational Finland and its partners facilitated cooperation via innovation workshops and 1-on-1 meetings. The respective counterparts came from industries such as Education Innovation, Healthtech, Agritech, Smart Cities, and Digital Entrepreneurship Ecosystem.
The workshops centered around individual market entry plans and provided insights from well-networked experts, and access to invaluable information about how to attain private and public funding in Finland and India. This invite-only whole day event at HUB13 highlighted to potential partners the essential items to consider when attempting to tap into both open and regulated markets; to manage financial flows from India to overseas countries; and to recruit top talent to shoulder ground operations.
The day ended in a good mood with chilling until late night in the center of Helsinki.
High-level Panel: Digging for a roadmap to roll out concrete results
GOInternational hosted at We+ in Kaapelitehdas a high level panel on “Innovation Ecosystems and Opportunities for collaboration” with distinguished panelists and equally intelligent audience. It was a panel about thought leadership and disruptive thinking in action.
After the initial introduction, everyone deep dived into dissecting the ecosystems. All the speakers, i.e. Mr. Arvind Gupta, Head of the Digital India Foundation, Mr. Rickard Damm, Principal of ThirdRisk Ventures, Mr. Gaurav Singh, Founder & CEO of Yati Capital and Mr. Sami Pienimäki, CEO of Jolla were actively engaging an audience that was thirsty of specific knowledge, gauging by the numerous questions they asked enthusiastically.
With the intention to move away from talk and talk, the panel session had a particular angle on what it can do to move things forward. As such, some of the action points that were summarized in the end by Mr. Raghunath Koduvayur, Strategic Marketing Manager at Tieto included, just to name a few.:
- NIIF to focus on the ecosystem players of digital economy
- Create a platform for new companies to work together
- Create a joint investor network between India and the Nordics
- Create a forum to exchange talent base around digitalization and to build a common repository of knowledge for community of experience sharing
Immediately after the panel, after a brief pause and a car ride to town, the guests were ready for a sumptuous dinner to celebrate the NIIF inaugural launch with bright colors.
Launch at the Gala Dinner: The opportunities are plentiful
The launch of the Nordic India Innovation Forum was held during an exclusive gala dinner at the splendid and historical Helsingin Suomalainen Klubi in the city centre. Honorable Ambassadors, CEOs of startups and top Finnish innovation companies graced the occasion.
After the opening words and toast by Mr. Mohammad Shabbir, CEO & Founder of GOInternational Finland, the keynote address on the plentiful opportunities in Indian was offered by H.E. Shri. Ashok Kumar Sharma, Ambassador of India to Finland and Estonia. The Honorable Ambassador had been very supportive of the NIIF launch much to the appreciation of the NIIF Partners.
The three-course dinner started with nice music and networking ambiance. The audience enjoyed a VIP Fireside Chat entitled “Digital and physical space in architecture” with Mr. Arvind Gupta, Head & Founder of Digital India Foundation, Mr. Pekka Helin, CEO of Helin & Co Architects and Mr. Tero Vanhanen, Architect & Visionary of Fira Oy. The chat focused on India’s 30 billion euro Smart City Mission which aims to develop 300 smart cities across the country over the next 15 to 20 years.
The next Fireside Chat entitled “India as a Source of Investment for Finnish SME & Startup Ecosystem” with invited speakers: Mr. Gaurav Singh, Founder & CEO of Yati Capital, Mr. Rickard Damm, Principal at ThirdRisk Ventures and Mr. Mohammad Shabbir, CEO of GOInternational Finland. Funding is key, and how to attract investors from India to the Nordics, which is much needed, was envisioned.
One of the last two speeches that evening came from Ms. Henrietta Kvist, CEO of Linguajoy who in honor of GOInternational Finland’s women entrepreneurship initiative shared with us her thoughts on being and entrepreneur. Mr. Raimo Ilveskero, Executive Director of Helsingin Suomalainen Klubi shared about Suomi100, the best from Finland, given the current year being the centenary year of Finland’s independence.
Finally, towards the end, as everyone was wrapping up the evening, the Innovation Drivers, i.e. Mr. Arvind Gupta, Mr. Mohammad Shabbir and Mr. Shamit Ghosh came on stage and the Nordic India Innovation Forum was officially launched with the new website shown on the big screen, under a big round of applause.
The gala dinner concluded with dessert, music and open networking.
NIIF and its innovation drivers eagerly welcome initiatives in co-creation between the Nordics and India, and we will be more than happy to facilitate such ideas with an entrepreneurial mindset. Please get in touch with us via email, phone, or drop by our office in Helsinki’s city center.
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