Design Stories and updating activities

A group of Finnish YIE participants and students from Lapland University of Applied Sciences took part in The Stories -seminar organized during the Arctic Design Week 2014 in Rovaniemi on February 20^th.

After the seminar an info event was held in which the participants were given some information about the upcoming YIE events and happenings as well as about a chance to get involved with mentoring with the help of YIE.

New approaches to design

The Stories -seminar was about how using the design expertise benefits businesses. The Finnish and international design experts spoke about creativity and the arctic as the resource and advantage of a blooming business.

The event kicked off by founder and managing director of SeosDesign, Antti Pitkänen’s presentation about his recent work as the project manager in the Design ROI -research project. In the project he and his team of researchers from Aalto University set out to develop a methodology and tool to measure the economic impact of design.

Juhana Arkio, who is currently running the Industrial Design team at Wärtsilä, shared his knowledge about industrial design. After that the stage was given to Anne Turula, Customer Service Manager in the Growth Companies Unit of Tekes. She leads the New Customer Team that works in cooperation with company service networks to encourage and spar with Finnish SMEs in the field of innovative activities, and to direct the companies with the most potential to make use of the innovation funding provided by Tekes.

André Côté was one of the key speakers
of The Stories -seminar.

Exterior designer Thomas Stöcker presented Volkswagen’s design process. A quick survey on the way back home revealed that most of the participants thought his presentation was the most intriguing of all!

Designer André Côté from BRP, in turn, discussed especially about the development process of Sea-Doos and Ski-Doos. Côté is Advanced Concept Manager (design portion) and Design Services for Lynx, OE and ROTAX.

Corporate advisor, keynote speaker and writer Tuija Seipell finished the seminar with captivating speech in which she encouraged to separate Arctic Design Week from other

Tuija Seipell closed The Stories -seminar.

design weeks by concentrating on "the arctic". For the past nine years, Seipell has been the senior writer for The Cool Hunter, the oldest design and pop culture blog followed by millions each month.

Also during The Stories -seminar, Kristiina Kaski from Teknova Publishers and Satu Miettinen from University of Lapland presented a new publication called "DesignThinking" (Muotoiluajattelu).

Some of the presentations of The Stories -seminar can be found here.

InnoBarentsLab (IBL) students and entrepreneurs were actively involved in Arctic Design Week’s different organisational activities. They were helping with practicalities during Stories Seminar under the supervision of Heli Huhanantti who is one of our senior IBL members. Outi Lehtiniemi has been responsible for design lounge in Arktikum. Annika Konttaniemi organised a week-long workshop “Hooked” where participants got a chance to learn a new hooking technique and adaptations for that technique. This workshop was included also officially in the ADW programme and has been a great success.

YIE offers a chance to get involved with a mentoring program

After The Stories -seminar, it was time for the YIE Info Event for the participants. A group gathered to spend some time together at the Café in Korundi House of Culture. At first the project manager Eila Seppänen presented the project and the mentoring opportunities it offers for it’s Finnish participants.

Audience had a chance to get more familiar with the mentoring process while audiovisual

Aila Mulari has had a chance to develop her skills
by working together with a mentor.

producing student Aila Mulari from Lapland University of Applied Sciences shared her experiences about being a mentee. She highlighted that mentoring is way more than just consulting. By participating in mentoring programme she gained a lot of knowledge outside the classroom. Aila’s short film “Louhi” was written and filmed as a part of mentoring program.

Communications coordinator Minna Miettunen from The Regional Organization of Enterprises in Lapland (Lapin Yrittäjät) explained how to get involved in YIE's mentoring programme in the Lapland area. She pointed out that mentoring benefits both parties; as young entrepreneurs may have better knowledge of today’s requirements of business in web environment, the experienced entrepreneurs can share their many years’ expertise. In this way a mentee can also teach a mentor through open dialogue.

Jari Kunnari shared information about
existing mentoring programme.

Project manager Jari Kunnari from Rovaniemi RegionalDevelopment Agency Ltd (Rovaniemen Kehitys Oy), in turn, discussed about their existing mentoring programme. In their company business advisors find mentors if a young entrepreneur seems to be in a need for one. He mentioned that usually mental support is the most important thing entrepreneurs are looking for from mentors. According to Jari there's especially need for more mentees!

A lot of cross-border activities coming soon!

Anzelika Krastina from InnoBarentsLab (IBL Finland) shared information about upcoming cross-border events organised by IBL. InnoBarentsLab is a platform for students and young entrepreneurs to do business projects and experience entrepreneurship.

Anzelika and IBL student Samir Younes invited everyone to the Cross-border seminar on 8th May in Rovaniemi! The theme of the seminar is Creative entrepreneurship in the North - 

Anzelika Krastina and Samir Younes presenting
IBL activities (photo by Outi Lehtiniemi).

Crossing the Borders of Our Imagination. Another big event coming up soon is the Business camp in Murmansk from 19^th to 23^rd May 2014. The aim of the Business camp week is to explore the markets and cooperation across the border and a total of 10 businesses will be chosen to take part in the program.

Last but not least it was time to look ahead for the beginning of the summer, more specifically, to Barents Reunion on 3^rd-4^th June in Haparanda-Tornio, and Barents Business Festival that YIE organizes in addition to the main event. Quite appropriately, the theme/topic of the Barents Reunion 2014 is "Barents youth and young entrepreneurship".

Laplans UAS's R&D Manager Marika Saranne invited all the participants to join the

Elina Stoor is a part of the planning team of
the Barents Business Festival.

Barents Business Festival that will be a great showcase for the entrepreneurial knowledge and skills in the Barents region. Young and aspiring entrepreneurs get once again a chance to meet influential people from the area. Entrepreneur Elina Stoor from iLme innorooms pointed out that the planning of the Barents Business Festival is still going on, so all the good ideas about the event are more than welcome! To get more information, follow our Facebook-page.