Countdown time for FBC Business Finland HUB!

FBC has long had a dream that would bring breadth and width to the Finnish footprint on the regional market, providing softlanding and other services to support Finnish members in their growth plan. We have worked relentlessly and now in very good collaboration with Business Finland are establishing a nest for the Finnish expertise staying or visiting to investigate opportunities. FBC BUSINESS FINLAND HUB will see daylight at the turn of the year!

Deadline for expressions of interest to join the HUB is 15th October (non binding)

Deadline for final commitment/payment is 30th October

Read more here

Work begins on Expo 2020 Finnish Pavilion

Construction work was launched on August 26 on site on Finland’s Pavilion at the Expo 2020 Dubai.

 “We are among the first countries to have started the construction work on their pavilions at the Expo 2020 site,” remarked Severi Keinälä, commissioner-general Finland at Dubai Expo 2020. 

 “Finland’s Pavilion is inspired by the white blanket of snow that covers the Finnish landscape from autumn onwards,” he added.

The Pavilion resembles a white snow covered tent and takes its inspiration from Finnish nature, design and innovation. The simple, elegant design reflects the fascinating tradition of Finnish architecture. The Finnish pavilion is a meeting space, a tent where connections between Finnish and Arabic minds can be fostered.

From outside the shape is simple but refined. In the middle of pavilion, a dynamic wooden space Gorge is carved into the building, offering Expo visitors a pleasantly cool and shady retreat. The Gorge also relates to the unique Finnish history of innovation, which often requires thinking out of the box, element of surprise. In the pavilion, the surprise is the wooden heart and exhibitions inside. In addition, Finland pavilion is a place representing Finland's closeness to nature and personal exchange, in accordance with the motto of the EXPO 2020 Dubai: Connecting Minds, Creating the Future.

The pavilion will be a metal structure that will be built by Cimolai Rimond Middle East.  It will be clad with white fabric and insulated with sandwich panels.

 The tender for the construction of the Finland Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai was awarded to the international project team of Expomobilia (Switzerland), JKMM Architects (Finland), Factor Nova (Finland), Beyond Limits (UAE), and Five Currents (US).

Design Team and Concept of the Exhibition

The exhibition design team has been selected with the working group “Symbiosis” consisting of four highly professional companies: Futudesign Oy, Sun Effects Oy, Flatlight Creative and JKMM Architects.

Symbiotic relation between man and clean nature. The concept proposal of the working group “Symbiosis” describes how the symbiotic relation between man and clean nature creates the foundation for our future.  

Finland’s key strengths are Education and Know how, Nature and Sustainable Development, Functionality and wellbeing. Build on these strengths; the key themes of Finland Pavilion and Exhibition are happiness, circular economy, innovations and sustainability.  

The exhibition concept is expected to be completed during the autumn.

Partner Companies of Finnish pavilion

Finnish pavilion has all together 44 Partners, namely individual companies and clusters of companies. Total of over 110 companies have partnered with our pavilion.

With these partners we have reached our goal of 5 million euros of corporate funding. The door is still open for any company that wishes to take advantage of Finland pavilion in promoting their business in Emirates, Middle East or globally. The terms of partnership remain as before. Any interested company should contact our Expo team.

Communications

We have signed contract with a dynamic PR agency in Dubai, iHC - Integrated Holistic Communications, for Finland at Dubai Expo 2020 –project in UAE. The PR-agency will provide media relations services in securing best coverage for Finland and Finnish companies.

Operations and programming

The operations and programming planning has started, although still with minor emphasis. We will concentrate on these later this fall in more detail.

Operations will include the 40-50 guides of our pavilion (mainly provided by Haaga-Helia), housing of staff (Expo Village prices are quite high, thus we are looking suitable places near Expo) and other practical matters.

Programming consists mainly of the corporate program in the VIP area of the pavilion. In addition to this we are working with SITRA to develop the story of Finland centered around Circular Economy and Happiness, still including all sectors represented by our partner companies. Events in Expo area are planned with Nordic cooperation and also with other countries.

Finnish pavilion will be staffed by our Expo team and the Guides. The core of the Expo team will come from Helsinki, but few positions will be recruited locally in Dubai. Guides will be mainly from Haaga-Helia student population.

 Pirkko Autio, Finland at Dubai Expo

 

Dubai exhibition draft[48616].jpg

From a bridge to a Hub, from a dream to reality - Finland Hub launch day is approaching!

UAE has often been referred to as a bridge – a place you cross on your journey to somewhere. But that perception is changing. During a strategy process involving FBC corporate members an idea emerged a couple of years ago that a Finnish HUB, a Finland House would be much needed to take Finnish business operations, permanent and visiting, physically under its wing. To test the idea, a survey was conducted together with then ‘Finpro’ among importing or resident corporations and FBC members. There was a clear interest.  Since the confirmation of Finland’s participation in Dubai EXPO 2020 and after preliminary talks with various stakeholders involved such as Business Finland and their clients, the concept was deemed worth researching again. The operation has requires time to plan and research options, it requires capital spending and long term commitment. But now, after shortlisting candidate locations, the picture is getting clear and a dream is becoming reality. We are at final stages of negotiating an offer tailored for our needs. We will soon send our members an offer with different level options, from fixed office to floating seats, with an array of services included. Business Finland, also host of Finnish EXPO mission, is a key player in the HUB concept and for FBC, as a non-profit organization with limited resources it is a much welcome and needed step in creating a true Team Finland spirit.

FINLAND HUB is a physical, permanent or flexible place for Finnish companies and entities to have an address, office with services or showroom to examine market entry opportunities. It can be a place to co-create the Finnish offering to different segments, arrange meetings and events leading up to EXPO and beyond.  Dubai EXPO2020 is there for only 6 months, after all.  Social media and other virtual communities will complement the physical house.

FBC is an important connector to the local market before, during and after the Dubai EXPO 2020 and a means to hit the ground running. If your company is initially interested in the hub concept please contact admin@fbcuae.fi  to make sure you will get the offer. Please make sure you are also a member.

 Jaana Räsänen-Pentti

Honorary Chairman of FBC Finnish Business Council in the UAE

Partner at the Gulfpoint

 

 

 

What do you want to track?

Quuppa indoor location positioning company from Finland has been cracking the GCC- market, by delivering the world’s most advanced indoor positioning technology, to provide open, low-cost and scalable solutions for applications that demand the most accurate, real-time positioning of assets and people.

Quuppa is the first indoor location company to take an ecosystem view of the Real Time Location Services (RTLS) market, providing an open positioning platform both in terms of hardware and software APIs, where each company focuses on what it does best, helping speed time-to-market. The Quuppa Ecosystem currently includes more than 70 best-of-breed companies worldwide inc. Fujitsu, Lufthansa Industry Solutions, Ubisense.

Organizations across a range of industries, including manufacturing and logistics, retail, healthcare, sports, law enforcement and security, government and others rely on Quuppa and its ecosystem partners to unlock the full potential of indoor location-based services without compromising accuracy, compatibility or cost.

“The indoor location market, including IoT and Industry 4.0, is too big and multifaceted to be served by a single company,” said Kimmo Kalliola, CEO of Quuppa. “

Hence the Quuppa strategy to GCC- market is identifying partner candidates, to develop services for industry verticals or integrate within customer systems.

They will then be introduced to partners within the Quuppa ecosystem not only provide customers access to the best technology, but also to a suite of partners that can reliably drive projects quickly to a successful completion.

To learn more about Quuppa, please visit www.Quuppa.com