FinNode Future Session:

Smart Water

Friday April 20^th at 9:00-11:30

The goal of this Future Session is to dig into the critical water challenges facing the five FinNode Countries – China, India, Japan, Russia and USA – reviewing both ‘smart water’ opportunities as well as best practices, and hold in-depth discussions around selected case studies, which serve as the best examples for supporting the development and growth of the Finnish water sector’s global offering and future international market opportunities.

Signals:

The five FinNode countries will present the key water challenges faced by each country, followed by brief profiles of two case studies, which best represent the types of ‘smart water’ project opportunities and/or best practices found in their respective countries.  From the ten cumulative case studies, futures session participants will be invited to select the two that are most relevant for Finland.  These will be discussed in more detail in two breakout group discussions, and the collective comments will be shared amongst all participants along with a closing discussion on the best strategies for developing the Finnish water sector’s global offering and international market opportunities.  

Goals:

The goals of this futures session are to:

• Review the definitions for ‘smart water’ and understand how these kinds of solutions can be applied to the critical issues facing the global water sector;
• Present timely and relevant feedback from the five FinNode countries, indentifying their water sector issues and their project needs and/or best practices;
• Discuss how Finnish water know-how can be matched to the requirements of growing international water technology markets;
• Outline the potential next steps for assisting the Finnish water technology cluster in gaining higher global visibility for Finland’s water sector expertise as well as developing international pathways for future business and/or innovative collaboration.  

Target group:

This futures session is targeted to companies, industrial organizations, regional technology clusters, private- and public-sector research & development institutes and associations, universities, government bodies, and other organizations and persons interested and/or concerned with global water issues and opportunities.

For video and materials from the event please visit this website!

FinNode Future Session:

China on the Move: West and Central China Now and in Five Years – Get to the Fast Track!  

Friday April 13^th at 9:00 – 11:30

The goal of this Future Session is to illustrate the West and Central China fast development and what opportunities it opens for companies. Chongqing, Chengdu, Xian, Wuhan, Changsha, Kunming: the fast speed development in these main cities is turning these into good markets to operate also for foreign companies. We will be learning of new developing and growing China market areas and matching what that means for Finland. New business for companies and what more?

Signals:

We will learn of selected focus areas and company stories from West and Central China.

It is interesting to to hear if China’s “Go West Strategy” with strong backing from central government with preferential policies in forms of expanding infrastructure investment and preferential treatment for companies investing in the area is working.  The lower labor and and costs comparing with Eastern China and fast business and market development are atracting more companies to look to the West. But is it true? Well known universities are feeding the growth of knowhow, research and local expertise. What about research?

Goals:

Share and discuss of fresh experiences and learn of Western and Central China opportunities. Brainstorm what could be done there. To learn what kind of cooperation and support would Finnish companies need to develop their opertions in the region and what is available already.       

Target group:

Companies and organisations planning operations to China or who already operate in China.

For video and materials from the session please visit this website!

FinNode Future Session: Evolving Indian Cloud-Ecosystem(s)

Friday, March 30th at 9:00-11:30

The goal of this Future Session is to brainstorm on optimal utilization of ecosystems (clouds, platforms, policy enablers, value networks) and co-innovate with Indian ecosystem players. The objective is to understand innovation networks and ecosystems in India and analyse how these can be linked with corresponding Finnish organisations for new kinds of collaboration models based on open innovation.

Signals:

The session will include 3-4 case studies by Indian innovation ecosystem organisations highlighting:

·         Their role in the Indian innovation ecosystem and how they co-create with other players in the value chain

·         Business/operational model

·         Explore collaboration possibilities with Finland

Goals:

The goals of this session are to brainstorm how FinNode India could be acting as an open innovation facilitator and agree to ideas and tools for open innovation actions. The project aims to develop a sustainable model for FinNode network and Finnish organizations to stay in close proximity to the best identified clouds and value networks in India in years to come.

Target group:

The target group comprises Finnish innovation ecosystem stakeholders, government and research organizations, multipliers.

For materials and video of the session please visit this website!

FinNode Future Session:

Japan – Found in Transition

Friday 9.3.2012 at 9:00-11:30 (Finnish time)

One year has passed since the Great East-Japan Earthquake and Japan is now trying to head for a better society. The Reconstruction Agency is established under the Cabinet and new flexible policies are started to be enacted such as Special Zone for reconstruction, based on the needs for future. Currently affected area has become a so-to-speak living laboratory for aging society, including AIST’s Smart life care consortium that carries out demonstration experiments for monitoring elderly and community creation. City development plans from municipalities becoming ready, how to utilize lands and fields washed away effectively. ICT plays important role as an enabler, behind the new activities, to achieve new industry cluster development and solutions, such as farming system using ICT etc.  

The aim of this Future Session is to understand current situation and what is happening in affected regions along with new emerging approaches, which could give some inspiration to Finnish business and organizations for the future planning.

Signals:

Short description of the main content of the presentations

1)      Short summary of current recovery situation

2)      Government stimulative measures (including special business zones)

3)      Introduction of new approaches in the area

Goals:

The goals of this session is to present the ongoing process of Japan’s transition, and open discussion what can be offered from Finland as well as envision the future society. Reconstruction activities will be in full-scale in 2012 and all discussions will contribute to the continuing FinNode project 2012 “New direction of Japan”.           

Target group:

Assumed session participants would be individuals who would like to grasp the up-to-date situation in Japan in order to develop solutions and seek opportunities for:

·         Private companies

·         Research groups

·         Public sectors

Especially in the fields of:

1.       Health and wellbeing

2.       Built environment, infrastructure

3.       ICT

For more information, video and materials from the session, please visit this website!

FinNode Future Session:

Future of Learning vol.2 – from Global Vision into Finnish Vision

Date and time: Friday 2 March 2012 at 9 am -11:30 am Finnish time

Learning and Education – what are the trends, visions and sign-posts globally? What are the hot topics, needs and opportunities which Finland can grasp and turn into business opportunities, capitalizing on its unique education expertise? 

“Future of Learning” is a global FinNode project, run simultaneously in US, Russia, China, Japan and India. The approach is to study the learning ecosystem in all the countries, identify future roadmaps in each country and elaborate the findings through an open dialogue, online and face-to-face, with different experts and stakeholders. The objective is to build a visionary roadmap for Finland with a time span of 5-10 years in order to help Finland become a true forerunner in the field of education and learning related solutions.

Flow of the session:

1. Project in a nutshell and update on the status
2. Presentation of the 5 country  and main findings  (including one summary slide and three other slides titled Platforms; Vocational, Skills and Lifelong Learning; Teacher Edu  
3. PM’ s summary on the findings and an inspirational (sic!) introduction to local discussion on a. what should be the narrative of Finland b. how will we reach our goal: which focus areas should we choose and how to assess the feasibility of them

Goals:

The goals of this Session are to draft a visionary road map for Finland by discussing the five country summaries and the findings, to discuss tangible opportunity areas and plan what and how to do in national scale to move towards the opportunities. All discussions will contribute to the visionary road map under construction until the end of March.

Target groups

Session participants are individuals who want to develop solutions for education and learning needs globally. They are leaders and managers in their own organizations. They represent:

• companies of different sizes already providing educational and learning products and services
• industrial companies interested in providing training services
• educational institutes
• research groups
• innovation support organizations

Interested in hearing more? Please visit this website for video and materials from the session!

FinNode Future Session: BoP Cases for Business Development in 2012

February 3, 2012 at 9:00-11:30 am (Finnish time)

The goal of this Future Session is to choose small number of future business and innovation areas related to Base-of-the-Pyramid market segments, emerging countries and inclusive innovation models. Focus country is India with additional cases from other parts of the world. The participants of the this session and organising FinNode project ‘BOP 3.0 Co-creating ecosystems’ will later conduct workshops to define concrete action plans for each of the joint operation that gets selected in this Future Session.

Content of the session:

1. National call for action regarding Finland’s role in BOP and inclusive innovation

2. 6-8 case presentations

1. Each case is an opportunity for Finnish joint operation in India or other parts of the world for building new business, creating new innovations and including low-income users in the process.
2. Participants will define how to approach 3 or more of the cases and who are the partners needed for each
3. Case list will be started on the event web page by Mid January

Target group:

1. Companies interested in business opportunities in lower income segments in emerging countries and possibilities for collaboration with innovators who represent these segments
2. Organisations who are interested in helping Finnish companies to develop their business
3. Finnish organisations active in capacity building, foreign aid and other forms of help for developing/emerging countries

For more information, videos and material from the session, please visit this website!

FinNode Future Session:

Future of Learning – from Global Vision into Finnish Vision

Date and time: Friday 9 December 2011 at 9 am -11:30 am Finnish time

Learning and Education – what are the trends, visions and sign-posts globally? What are the hot topics, needs and opportunities which Finland can grasp and turn into business opportunities, capitalizing on its unique education expertise? 

“Future of Learning” is a global FinNode project, run simultaneously in US, Russia, China, Japan and India. The approach is to study the learning ecosystem in all the countries, identify future roadmaps in each country and elaborate the findings through an open dialogue, online and face-to-face, with different experts and stakeholders. The objective is to build a visionary roadmap for Finland with a time span of 5-10 years in order to help Finland become a true forerunner in the field of education and learning related solutions.

Signals:

Short presentations will cover the following topics:

●      Overview of the project

●      Preliminary findings

●      2 concrete cases: Potential opportunities for Finnish early intervention

Goals:

The goal of this Future Session was to initiate concrete action points by the participants, present some preliminary findings and get guidance for the content of the project. The project group recognizes that the ambitious task of co-creating a visionary roadmap requires open dialogue, out-of-the box thinking and global sharing. Another session under the same topic will be arranged on March 2nd, 2012.

Please visit this website to see the video, presentations and materials of the session!

FinNode Future Session: 21st Century Urban Design & Development, vol. 2

Friday 2.12.2011 at 9:00-12:00 Finnish time

Global research into the direction of modern urban design has been undertaken during 2011 in the five FinNode countries – China, India, Japan, Russia and USA – with additional analysis of the developing world from a World Bank viewpoint.  There are common themes among geographic areas; however, there are also unique features in each market that may offer specific opportunities for given sets of Finnish offerings. 

These were discussed in the first FinNode Future Session that was held on the 5^th of September, and they were further elaborated upon in a second Future Session that was held on the 2^nd of December.  The second Future Session also provided a means of comparing markets and special features that are relevant to Finnish institutions and companies engaged in the development and implementation of key elements.  Participants were invited to brainstorm on the latter and select from of a set of smart and/or sustainable city case studies for in-depth discussion in the second half of the Future Session. 

Signals:

In this session we reported our intial findings as follows:

- Short Description of the Market – i.e., further refinement of what was presented earlier

- Who are the Key Players Driving the Market – e.g., the entities/persons that are actually making things happen in important projects

- Focused Summary of the Key Features of the Market – reference city case study for further detailed discussion (see note below)

- What are the Market’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) – this can be folded into the following slide or stated separately

- Vision of the Future Market – i.e., What is the timeline with associated developmental milestones for future urban development?

Please visit this website to see the presentations and materials from the session!

FinNode Future Session: Your LIFE

Tuesday November 22nd at 9:00-11:30 (Finnish time)

LIFE, the FinNode project, was developed to clarify the uncertainties that lie between the technology and consumption gap in today’s healthcare, wellness and technology markets.  And, it begins to investigate the “new healthcare marketplace,” apps, devices and gaming. Social media and social health are rapidly joining hands.

The market is saying that accurate and intelligent self monitoring of health, body functions and activities at the employee health, wellness and home levels is seen as the wave of the future and will enhance quality of life and reduce the cost of care.  Monitoring of one’s health has become a new means to determine if we will live longer and healthier by knowing more about our daily health and activities. Yet, there are many open questions as the ecosystem matures.

We had an interesting discussion with inspiring presentations by Val Kratzman. Please check this website to see the materials from the event and join the discussion online!

FinNode Future Session: Commercialization of Russian Innovations

Tuesday November 8th at 9:00-11:30 (Finnish time)

The goal of this Future Session was to bring good understanding of what is currently happening in the Russian innovation market: developing trends, financing, possibilities for Finnish entrepreneurs and companies to build international business, based on ideas and technologies invented in Russia.

To see the video and the materials, please go to this website.

FinNode Future Session: Entertaining China

Friday October 14th at 9:00-11:30

The Chinese market is the fastest growing market in the world and for the possibility to take your own part from that growth, we offered the possibility to get a view from one detailed sector.

The goal of this Future Session was to give a view from China’s entertainment and gaming industry sector.  In 2010, China’s online games market grew 25% to reach $5 billion. e-Online games market in China will exceed $8 billion in 2014. One of the most talked-about trends is the emergence of Sina’s Weibo micro-blogging platform, which is similar to Twitter, in that it allows online and text posts of 140 characters. Weibo’s registered users grew more than 25 times in 2010 and surpassed 100 million in February 2011.

China has done its 12^th five years plan and in this Future session we got a short description of that given by FinNode China director Jaani Heinonen. Also we heard a presentation from Director Henry Holm from Rovio China. We also heard an excellent view over Chinese digital entertaining market and business opportunities by the FinNode project “Entertaining China” and Chinese Industry Association.

To see the video and the materials, please go to this website.

FinNode Future Session: Future Nanotechnology Business Opportunities in China and Russia

Friday September 16th at 9:00-15:00

The roles of China and Russia have been well recognized by Finnish Nanotechnology stakeholders, and for a good reason: aggressive growth within the global nanotechnology has been realized in both countries by increasing government spending to nanotech by roughly 500 MUSD within 2010 – in Russia into 1500 USD and in China close to 1000 USD. In 2010 China became also the world’s nanotech publication leader, leaving even US behind. Furthermore, in China also the corporate funding increased 27% from year 2009. Thus Russia and China are definitely the directions to look at when talking about nanotechnology future.

The aim of the FinNode Future Signal Sessions is to deliver new information fostering the business opportunities of Finnish nanotech companies in China and Russia; new information on nanotech related operational environment and new direct contacts for b-to-b. In addition, the discussion will focus on nanotechnology and materials related opportunities within machinery and construction materials.

To see the video and the materials please go to this website.

FinNode Future Session: 21st Century Urban Design

Monday 5.9.2011 at 9:00-11:30

FinNode has launched a global project through the five FinNode countries – China, India, Japan, Russia and USA – which is analyzing the drivers and opportunities that are present in the developing 21st century urban landscape. 

This effort is based upon the premise that revitalized ways of viewing urban spaces are being developed, which go beyond compartmentalized issues, such as industry, commerce, energy, transportation and buildings, to the position of understanding the community as a whole and the complex interactions of present and future digital and social environments with infrastructure and spaces.  Identifying emerging needs and developing matching innovative solutions present significant opportunities for a variety of Finnish firms and institutions that are concerned with the built, digital and social environments.

You can see the video of the session and the materials here. There will also be another session with the same topic on December 2nd so please stay tuned!

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