YIE participants exploring northern industries in Hammerfest

Hammerfest city

The annual Barents Sea Youth conference (BSYC) took place on 2.–4.4.2014 in Hammerfest, Norway. The goal of the conference is to give young people, future professionals, an insight into regional industry initiatives and career prospects as well as an opportunity to build new networks with each other and the business community in the Barents region.

This year 30 students and young entrepreneurs from Finland, Russia, and Sweden gathered together. It was a unique opportunity for all to get familiar with oil and gas industry developments and to see what its benefits for the development of the entire

region are. Visits and presentations at Statoil LNG plant, Polarbase, as well as meeting the companies during the expo in the conference opened up new perspectives.

From Finland all participants are active members of the YIE project and therefore we took a chance to promote our project and upcoming cross-border activities. One of our experts, Iikka Rahkonen from Lapland UAS’s Tornio campus informed the audience about the industries and business opportunities in Finnish Lapland. Probably the most exciting part

Iikka Rahkonen preparing for his presentation

for young people from the Barents was the teamwork in workshops, working on challenging topics of Arctic technology and looking for solutions to current problems. The conference resulted in presentations by the participants on innovative solutions to given industry problems.

YIE project participants from Finland shared their personal experiences from the BSYC and visit to Hammerfest:

Joni Niskala is an entrepreneur and a YIE participant and his goal was to meet industries in

order to network and seek new business opportunities. His company Minetec Oy deals with hydraulics, automation, installation and maintenance. He admits that this was not a usual trip. He gained new views and discovered a different side of business opportunities. He thought it was nice to see the motivation of students to be a part of northern industries. “I discovered the future potential that can grow from created contacts. I also feel comfortable acting here as a mentor during the workshop, since I have some experience”.

Annika Konttaniemi, business student from Lapland UAS and InnoBarentsLab (IBL) student leader emphasised the importance of teamwork. Her group consisted of 2

Annika Konttaniemi is happy about
the experiences gained in Hammerfest

engineers, a journalist, and herself. The team did not have previous teamwork experience, but was able to work in a very creative manner and she found an especially interesting journalistic approach demonstrated by her team member.  “Everybody needs the culture shock, not only in terms of nationalities, but also in terms of working cultures; we need to act like grownups here.” Regarding the industries, Annika adds: “I am concerned about the nature preservation in Norway seeing all the developments in the oil and gas industry.” 

Roni Mäläskä, business student from Lapland UAS and active student of YIE InnoBarentsLab in Rovaniemi shared that for him, it was first of all a big cultural experience, “an opportunity to work with fellow students who have come from all over the

Barents region and some from even more distant locations to the city of Hammerfest.”  It is not easy to share ideas with each other and learn how to work together and also find the group spirit between team members when you have only known them for a day. I have also received a lot of information concerning oil and gas industries which are located in Norway, the current situation and the future of the business in the area. I discovered also that Norway is more than just oil and gas; it is a way of life. I always had an image that civilisation ends in Rovaniemi, but vibrant life can exist in a northern city of 10 000 people like Hammerfest and that Lapland’s people can offer so much more than they even realise, such as different innovative business services, tourism services and infrastructure development activities.” 

Samir Younes (student of Lapland UAS, IBL member) acknowledged that this trip opened new opportunities and created an understanding of huge opportunities for cooperation in

Roni Mäläskä and Samir Younes meeting
the industry at the Statoil stand

the North, not only in the oil and gas industry, but also for more innovative businesses. “Being in the workshop with engineers made me more confident in my business studies, because the diversity of education, cultural background and personality diversity all contribute to better results. That is also what I learnt from the Statoil presentation, about 19 nationalities working in Hammerfest LNG plant. We talk so much about the North, but now it is time for the action to make it work!”

Heidi Alariesto represented her own company, Sijaishaltija Oy, which aims to help companies to manage staff and find workers easily. Heidi said that her aim was to create

Entrepreneur Heidi Alariesto introducing her own business

contacts during the conference expo, however, due to a closed road on the way to Hammerfest we lost valuable time and therefore there was not enough time for company negotiations. The lesson in this is that you never know if the weather is good in Norway. Overall Heidi admits: “I have got a couple of interesting contacts and I hope that some of the students will contact me and will help me to get into the Swedish and Norwegian markets.” Besides new international experience, for Heidi it was also a good chance to get to know our Finnish participants and she thinks that there is a great potential for cooperation in this group. As an experienced entrepreneur, she acted many times as a mentor or advisor during the workshops.

Heidi Hjulberg, student of Business administration with the Business Academy-model at

Heidi Hjulberg learns differences of working cultures

the Tornio campus of Lapland UAS stressed that she was surprised at the culture differences, even though we are so close here – different Barents countries, the working style of the other students was different from the Finnish one, it sometimes takes a long time to make decisions. “In addition this was a great chance to see the large gas and oil industry and its developments. I got some ideas to create business within the building industry here and I will share these business ideas with my family and will use connections I created.” 

See a video with Joni Niskala (produced by the participants)!

Text and photos:
Anzelika Krastina, 
project coordinator