Rohkea, luova ja aina valmiina seikkailuun!

Junatyöpajassa Tukholman ja Kööpenhaminan välissä kirkastimme yritysideoitamme pienissä ryhmissä.

Haluan perustaa orpokodin, luoda jotain omaa, tehdä uudenlaista asiantuntijatyötä…
Näitä ja monia muita haaveita ilmestyi ideakartalle, kun pohdimme ensimmäisessä työpajassa Silja Europan irrotessa Turun rannasta, millaisia ammattilaisia haluaisimme olla isona ja mikä meitä motivoi kehittämään omaa yritysideaamme.

Minä pohdin seuraavaa:

1. Vaihtoehto käpätykselle: Journalismi muuttuu vinhaa vauhtia. Kun hyväksyy, että muutos on pysyvää, voi alkaa luoda tulevaisuutta. Minä ja kaksi kollegaani haluamme tehdä töitä porukassa ja hyödyntää journalistista osaamistamme  perinteisen median lisäksi muilla tekstintuotantoareenoilla. Maailma on täynnä tietoa, joka voisi olla muotoiltu vetävämmin vaikka tarinoiksi ja infografiikoiksi.
2. Inspiroivat tyypit: Yhtiökumppani kannattaa valita niin, että niiden kanssa haluaa työskennellä väsyneenä, nälkäisenä ja pattitilanteessa. Minua on ajanut eteenpäin suuri palo työskennellä juuri yhtiökumppaneideni kanssa. Ideani lähtevät poikkeukselliseen lentoon heidän kanssaan – vapaapäivinäkin.
3. Matkasta nautinto: Jos urheilija ei näe tervettä päivää, yrittäjä tuskin näkee ongelmatonta hetkeä. Yritän opetella nauttimaan matkasta. Siitä, kun palapelin palaset löytävät pyörittelyn jälkeen toisensa. Yritys ei koskaan tule valmiiksi.

When I grow up I will be…?
Brave, creative and always ready for an adventure!
In the first workshop we talked about what what kind of work we want to do in the future.

Three factors motivate me especially:

1. An option for complaining: My two collegues and I want to create something new with our journalistic skills instead of complaining about the rapid change in the traditional media scene. We are interested in using the tools of feature journalism a new way in research and reporting context.
2. Inspiring collegues: I have been greatly inspired by my collegues. I am motivated to work with them even when I am tired, hungry and we are in a dead end.
3. Make a pleasure out of a journey: Pitching a business idea is full of tricky suprises. I try to learn to enjoy solving them.

Maria Ruuska, a sosiologist & journalist

Click on the image for Tieteestä Toimintaa Flickr!

 

It’s more important to know where you are going than to get there quickly – Isocrates

My journey to Amsterdam and Copenhagen did not start today; it started back in 2000, in Romania when I was teenager who had an odd desire of learning Finnish and dreamed of meeting her favourite bands.

My decision to join this project and to dare think about being an entrepreneur are the direct result of my long journey to Finland, an experience which has taught me a great deal about the effects of believing strongly in something. At the same time, the idea and desire to invest my energy into a start-up came from a series of events in Romania which showed that, for some, reaching a destination means cutting the journey short at any cost.

The Romanian summer of 2012 has been rocked by a series of political scandals but possibly the most telling has been centered around the PM’s plagiarized PhD. thesis. Other members of his cabinet could not escape similar accusations: copying scientific articles and inventing degrees they never rightfully obtained. But these errors were not as telling as the fact that, while in any civilized country, the respective politicians would have kissed their career good-bye, in Romania, the act of plagiarism was explained as a legitimate stepping stone to success. Plagiarism is rife in Romania and I have had the misfortune of experiencing it first hand. The main issue now is how to encourage young people to understand the moral bankruptcy that cheating represents and how it undermines almost every single institution in a society.

My idea is now plain a simple: to come up with a project that would deal with academic practices and moral standards. At this point, I don’t know what will come of this; I just want it to be a promise to myself that I try to do my best whether or I fail or not ; because I don’t like cutting trips short.

Even though the autumn in Finland is filled up with beautiful colors, I feel super excited to hit the road, train, sea (and whatever) towards Denmark and Holland again! Two months from my last trip to Portugal and it already feels like it was ages ago. I have visited Copenhagen a few times earlier. In Amsterdam I spent only a couple of hours in between two flights few years ago when coming back to Finland from Mexico and South America. So yes, I love travelling :). And seeing new places and meeting new people makes me feel very alive.

This trip is about so much more – I’m going to learn more about academic entrepreneurship and meet a bunch of people who have transform their words into action, creating companies who have an original outlook. This is something where I could see myself to be part of in the future. It is exciting to travel with a group of innovative people who are open to new ideas and are ready to take things to the next stage. 

Today afternoon we will already be travelling. My idea that I want to develop during the trip is an access course for the university. The course would contain a stipend system and be more affordable than the other courses available. Every year thousands of young people apply to access courses in the hope of getting into university. These courses are designed to train the youngsters in their entrance exams. It would be great to give an opportunity to young people who would not necessarily apply to university to have access to higher education through the access course.

Access courses and the business around it have become an institution in the finnish education system, although they are not a formal part of it. I took part in an access course a few years ago. Through it I got in to the Univeristy of Helsinki. I was to start my studies in political science. I felt that the world was open for me. My teacher at the acces course was excellent, inspiring and super active. The cost of the course was approximately 500 euros. The price was cheap in comparison with many other acces courses in different study fields.

Let`s climb together?

Does everyone have the possibilty to experience the same feeling which I experienced in the beginning of my academic career? Can everyone have the feeling that the world is open to them? Can everyone have an excellent teacher to support them in their task? No way, is my opinion. A young person who does not have the money or whose parents do not have the money, does not have the possibility to experience my feelings. In addition to money one needs loads of time and motivation. The step can be too big for a young person to take unless he has known at age eight that he was going to become a doctor.

These thoughts, so strictly connected to the questions of welfare state, democracy and equality, are those I am eager to develop during our trip which starts off today. Copenhagen and Amsterdam here we come.

jenna.lahdemaki@helsinki.fi / twitter.com/jennabl

Paula and Merja interviewing each other.

Yesterday at Toimintaa! -torstaiklubi (which this time was on Monday) we learnt and practiced how to build one’s expertise and tell about it in the web. If you weren’t there, this blog post is your virtual workshop on the topic.

LESSONS ON MARKETING & BLOGGING

Two peer experts led us the way: Tomi Strömberg, a student of folklore & b2b marketing communications professionial taught us  the really useful basics of marketing (your expertise). Three things that caught my attention:

1. Target group & call to action: In marketing you always have a target group you want to act in a certain way. Think who you’re talking to, where they coming from and what you want them to do. Communicate it.
2. Work in progress: Expertise is a process, so communicate work in progress, not just end results. It’s a way to learn with your target group.
3. Contact details: Attach your contact details everywhere and every time. People don’t want to make an effort in finding you.

Erkki Perälä, a student of political science & a prominent blogger & social media debator shared his secrets on how to develop and tell about your expertise by blogging. Three things that caught my attention in Erkki’s “How to write a perfect blog post” lesson:

1. Interact: Invite your public to discussion and reply to comments. Don’t leave your readers alone after you’ve posted your post.
2. Summarize or translate: If you don’t have a topic of your own to write about, create a summary or translation of something with your own remarks. It might stir a lot of discussion.
3. Remember the picture: Make sure you link your blog post to Facebook etc. and that the link has a picture. Make sure the image link works by using FB’s best kept secret. And Flickr is an incredible, free source of Creative Commons licensed photos and other pics to attach to your blog posts etc. (Go ‘advanced search’ > tick “Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content”)

FROM KNOWLEDGE TO ACTION IN 15+15+15 MINUTES

After Tomi’s & Erkki’s valuable insights we practiced what had been preached by creating an introductory text of ourselves for the web. To chase away the hesitation and the fear of empty paper, we divided the task in three efficient quarters of an hour:

1. 15 min: Interviewing each other, interviewee rambling about her/himself and the interviewer taking notes. The questions: What excites you? What bugs you? What are you good at that the world needs? What have you done with whom? Who do you want to work with?
2. 15 min: Interviewing the other way around
3. 15 min: Exchanging notes and writing your own introduction in 15 minutes ONLY.

Then for half an hour peer reviewed the introductions. Very very useful and eye opening. One by one the intro texts were projected on the wall and others gave supportive comments on how to shape the introduction to be even more catchy, concise and clear in telling who you are, what you think and what you can. You’ll see the results of the 15+15+15+peer review in this blog soon.

(English version below)

Juna vie joukon Helsingin Yliopiston opiskelijoita lokakuun alussa viikoksi raiteilla Amsterdamiin ja Kööpenhaminaan. Matkalla tutustutaan Euroopan kiinnostavimpiin startup-yrityksiin, vieraillaan akateemista yrittäjyyttä kehittävissä yliopistoissa ja saadaan sparrausta omien yritysideoiden ja -taitojen kehittämiseen.

Matkalla kasvatat sekä omia ideoita, taitojasi, verkostojasi että näköalojasi. Näet, mitä Kööpenhaminassa ja Amsterdamissa tapahtuu ja samalla tutustut toisiin suomalaisiin merkityksellisestä yrittämisestä innostuneisiin opiskelijoihin. Matkan vetäjinä ovat Demos Helsingin Tuuli Kaskinen ja Outi Kuittinen, jotka ovat sparraneet monia varovaisia ideoita kunnianhimoisiksi start-upeiksi. Matka toimii vähän samaan tapaan kuin viime vuonna Demos Helsingin järjestämällä Low2No Campillä, katso video: http://low2no.fi/camp/out-came-urban-entrepreneurs/

Mukaan matkalle haetaan kertomalla, miksi tämä teema kiinnostaa juuri sinua sekä esittelemällä oma toimintaidea. Toimintaidea voi olla mikä tahansa opinnoissasi vastaan tullut asia, jossa voisi olla potentiaalia ihmisten elämän muuttamiseen tai vaikka bisneksen tekemiseen. Katso, mitä yliopistolla on viime keväänä tehty näihin teemoihin liittyen: https://blogs.helsinki.fi/toimintaa/

Viikko antaa kipinän niin vanhoille kuin uusillekin liikeideoille, emme oleta, että olisit ajatuksesi kanssa kovinkaan pitkällä!

Matkalaisista puolet on Tieteestä toimintaan -ryhmässä omia liikeideoitaan jo kehitelleitä opiskelijoita. Toinen puoli matkalaisista valitaan hakemuksensa jättäneiden joukosta. Reissua edeltää joukko workshoppeja, joiden aikana pääsee tutustumaan matkaporukkaan sekä itse vaikuttamaan viikon lukujärjestykseen ja kohteisiin.

Hae 20.9. mennessä osoitteessa http://tinyurl.com/ttmatka

Faktat matkasta:
– Lähtö 6.10. iltalaivalla Helsingistä, paluu 14.10. aamulla Helsinkiin
– Matkakohteina pääasiallisesti Amsterdam, Kööpenhamina ja niiden lähiympäristöt
– Matka tehdään junalla ja laivalla
– Demos Helsinki ja Helsingin yliopisto valitsevat yhteistyössä matkalle lähtevät Helsingin Yliopiston opiskelijat
– Helsingin yliopisto ja Uudenmaan liitto sponsoroivat suurimman osan matkan kustannuksista. Lisäksi ryhmä etsii rahoitusta muilta yhteistyökumppaneilta. Matkojen, majoituksen ja ohjelman omavastuuhinta on korkeintaan 200 € / osallistuja.

Matka ja Tieteestä toimintaa! -ryhmä ovat keskeinen porukka koko yliopiston kehittämisen ja siellä opiskelemisen kannalta. Siksi odotamme hakemuksianne ja ideoitanne innolla!

Tervetuloa mukaan!

Lisätietoja:
Tuuli Kaskinen, tuuli.kaskinen@demos.fi, puh. 050 5149752

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A bunch of students from University of Helsinki will hop on rails in October and head to Amsterdam and Copenhagen. There we will get to know the hottest start-ups in Europe, visit universities dedicated to cultivating academic entrepreneurship and get help from international business accelerators for our own business ideas.

In this trip you will see what academic entrepreneurship is in Copenhagen and Amsterdam. These learning experiences can then be put to use in Finland. The trip is similar to Low2No Camp which Demos Helsinki organized last year. See more about it at http://low2no.fi/camp/out-came-urban-entrepreneurs/

To get along to the trip we need you to tell why this theme interest you by introducing your own idea for action. This idea can be anything that has come along in your studies, that to you seems to have potential to change lives or create business. To check out what has already been going on at the university this spring, go to https://blogs.helsinki.fi/toimintaa/

The week will spark up both old and new business ideas, we by no means don’t assume that your own idea is a refined, long-thought-out plan.

Half of the participants or the trip are from Academic Action! -group and have already to some extent thought out their business ideas. Other half is chosen from those who have left their application. Before the trip the group will have multiple workshops, for getting to know your travelling partners and planning with the group the schedule and places to visit.

Apply by 20th of September at http://tinyurl.com/ttmatka

Facts about the trip:
– Departure via evening ferry on the 6th of October from Helsinki, return to Helsinki in the morning of 14th of October
– Destinations primarily Amsterdam, Copenhagen and the surrounding areas
– The trip is done via train and ferry
– Demos Helsinki and University of Helsinki together select participants for the trip from the University of Helsinki
– University of Helsinki and Uusimaa Regional Council sponsor most of the expences. In addition, the Action! -group will seek funding from other partners. The price paid by participants themselves for for travelling, accommodation and visits will be at maximum 200 € per traveller

The trip itself and the Academic Action! -group both have a big role in developing the University of Helsinki and the studies it provides. This is why we are excited to hear your applications and ideas.

Looking forward to your participation!

Additional info:

Lisätietoja:
Tuuli Kaskinen, tuuli.kaskinen@demos.fi, puh. 050 5149752

In search of inspiration and functioning models to learn from for our spatial and co-working needs I had a most fruitful field day visiting the Aalto Venture Garage with Luciana and Viljami. The Venture Garage, located in an old industrial warehouse in Otaniemi, Espoo is a free, multi-use open working space intended to push innovation and student start-ups towards more growth oriented trajectories. And some of us may now ask “growth, how does that concern us?” I know, I know. But read on and you might just be surprised how down-to-earth the Garage is in its operation.

Our brilliant hostess at the Garage, Natalie, began with explaining that “the first thing you need when putting together a co-working space such as this – where you want to enforce a sense of entitlement – is food and more importantly alcohol. We’re talking about Finns here, right?” We talked at length about how important it is to be able to uphold a sense of community and ownership in a group and the physical space that group comes to exist in. At the Garage students have been working on the space since day one. They have been a part of production all the way through and have gained a sense of pride in having accomplished it themselves. We all know that fixing up a space and putting our own sweat into it makes the space all the more important to us.

The people at the Garage also work hard in maintaining a sense of community. BBQ parties and the famous “Divine Breakfasts” bring together people from the workplace in more informal settings. And as Natalie put it “we’ve found out that you need good amounts of “lubrication” to get people properly socializing”. I say we keep this in mind and all promote a sense of belonging and community in our group!

As a space the Garage is all about openness. During business hours anyone is free to walk in, take a seat and get down to work. A “Hello Policy” ensures that newbies walking in are greeted by staff or other workers, before they begin to wonder where they are or what they’re supposed to do. Experiences – both successes and failures – are also openly talked about and learned from. Yet another policy at the Garage is “Strut your stuff”, meaning that people exhibit their products and achievements openly in the space for all (including possible investors) to see.

Despite fostering an uncommonly open atmosphere, some common guidelines are always needed. This is basically to ensure that everyone feels comfortable and equal in taking care of everyday chores. There is a tendency in us humans that the more of us there are, the less responsibility we take. Hence common guidelines that gear people towards responsible behavior are most valuable.

However, as Natalie put it “culture eats strategy for breakfast”. Workplace rules and strategies, if too strict, will inevitably fail. But a functioning, free, inclusive and open work culture will prosper and make us all happier. And this truly enforces our views on how to organize the social realities of the Action Group – by letting them organize themselves.

Below are Natalie’s golden tips for the Action Group:
1. Set the culture together
2. Set clear goals
3. Trial and Error
4. Keep it fun and open

The Action! -group assembled last time in the prestigiously formal surroundings of the Helsinki University but in a pleasantly informal manner. The topic of the day was a practical one: co-ops, a.k.a. osuuskunnat. Veijo Hämäläinen from Tampere Polytechnic University’s entrepreneurship project Proakatemia and Janne Lemmettinen of SYY akatemia took part and shared their vast experience on co-ops. Both men praised the flexibility of co-ops, the relative ease of individuals being able to join and leave co-ops and channel their profits through them. Co-ops seem to be an ideal choice for a group of people wanting to work as entrepreneurs with other people, while still maintaining relative independence and working on their own stuff.

Veijo Hämäläinen from Proakatemia. Picture by Outi Kuittinen

For me, the above described the Action! -group wonderfully. Being a late bloomer in the group, it was my turn to share the amazement of Outi and Mika when it comes to the plethora of ideas, enthusiasm and support people dished out. Not only did people have a variety of plans on how to step into the world of academic entrepreneurship, they were also willing to share them with others, hear critique and give support. This I think is an important aspect of the group. People have a strong desire to work together in order to reach both their common and individual goals. The strong spirit of ‘doing together’ is why a co-op seems to be the way to go for this group, or dare I say community.

When it comes to working together, the booming start-up scenes all over the world have a lesson to give: it’s good to have a wealth of people and start-ups around you. Admittedly, the whacky world of modern technology with file-sharing, collaboration platforms and whatnots does allow many entrepreneurs to work without much human contact. For example the 12-year-old Idea Consulting recently gave up its office space and is now strictly using the Internet to stay in touch with its 53 employees scattered all over the US, UK and Russia. Regardless, many entrepreneurs share the feeling that it’s good to have like-minded people close to you.

Haven of creativity? Picture from http://fallsdesign.blogspot.com/

In practice, this is often achieved by shared working spaces. While renting a 12 m² office space with clinically neutral-coloured walls, a desk and a few sockets in an “office park” is nothing new, many start-up locations worldwide take this idea much further. San Francisco -based RocketSpace politely explains the many alternatives start-ups have when it comes to benefitting from proximity. So-called accelerator and incubator programs provide a group of carefully chosen startups not only with spaces to work in, but mentoring, funding and other resources. For example Startup Bootcamp is a prominent accelerator located in multiple European cities.

But massive benefits can be obtained from just coworking facilities. They provide working space in usually open office -environments and conference rooms for meetings. Additionally, social spaces are available for meeting and mingling with the other freelancers and entrepreneurs of the facility. The facility also provides events for its members, such as networking with investors and workshops on advancing their businesses.

There are many benefits to reap from such spaces. First and foremost it is a chance to keep costs at bay while still maintaining an office. If you have 4 meetings with stakeholders per week, you don’t really need your own conference space. But meeting them at the local pub or hanging around your kitchen doesn’t really work either. For example the Brussels branch of the HUB network offers fully equipped conference rooms for rent for their members, and has them even for free for dedicated members. The Cube London even provides gallery space for its members. Another useful aspect is having knowledgeable people for help. Amsterdam’s Seats2Meet demands that members bring their know-how to use for other members. It can be very useful to have next door someone experienced in funding or marketing. Even better, the proximity can bring new business. Workshop-professionals Digitalks get a lot of deals from other firms working at the coworking space Sektor5 in Wien.

Open office, Brussels HUB style. Picture from http://brussels.the-hub.net/

Being organized as a bigger group of entrepreneurs has its own benefits. This allows the coworking hosts to provide a bunch of firms and freelancers with opportunities that would be hard to organize with individuals. London’s Third Door has arranged a wealth of events for its members. In these events the inhabitants of Third Door have been exposed to stuff everyone can benefit from, ranging from LinkedIn workshops to investor networking sessions.

Lastly, and quite obviously, the proximity brings both creativity and peer support. Starting entrepreneurs are certainly made of two things: multitude of ideas for new business and sporadic strokes of doubting their whole existence. Due to this it’s good to have access to a common space where you can go for a cup of coffee and a vent with someone sharing similar experiences. Realizing this, Werkheim in Hamburg has arranged sessions where its members can just rant and share views on different topics, from online marketing to customer behaviour.

Be it making big business or sharing that triple-choco-muffin with a stressed co-entrepreneur, the power is in the people.

Getting some much-needed peer support at Werkheim. Picture from http://www.werkheim-hamburg.de/