The ICT meets the Arts – Rovaniemi event under RegionArts Interreg Europe project took place on October 6th–7th 2020 in Rovaniemi, Lapland, Finland and online. The event was hosted by University of Lapland and ARCTA – Arctic Art & Design Labs (as part of Arctic Design Cluster operation) in collaboration with TEQU Talk event by Lapland University of Applied Sciences. Also, European Social Fund projects Creve 2.0, Get10, DYVA (Digitaalisuus yrittäjyyskoulutuksen voimavarana) and LeadBeha coordinated by respective organisations were in cooperation.
In combination, the theme of the 2-day event was digital and creative competence in business with the aim to bring together people especially from Arts (creative) and ICT (technology) sector as well as from different fields interested in the respective themes. The event gathered together about 135 participants in total representing entrepreneurs, other enterprise representants, business and regional developers, researchers, students and teachers from multidisciplinary fields.
The first day consisted of a day event with general presentations by organisers and projects, two keynotes and workshopping session as well as an evening networking session. Mikko Hyppönen, Finland’s most renowned cybersecurity expert, started the day with the theme of ‘Technology revolution – Our current state and the future’. Hyppönen works at F-Secure, acts as an advisor to EUROPOL and consults the Finnish senior government, has been going around the world speaking for the world’s biggest tech companies, TED conferences and European Parliament. In the event, Hyppönen shared his deep insight into how we are living amidst a technological revolution and what it really means. More specific themes included IoT and AI and what the on-going technology development means for our future.
Following the first keynote and Q&A discussion, it was time to focus on the human and creative side of things with Arman Alizad and theme of ‘From human to human – Understanding as a key to success’. Alizad is a well-known Iranian-Finnish producer, reporter and master tailor.
One of the greatest challenges of today’s communication culture is polarisation - that understanding is seen as accepting. Arman Alizad
Arman has investigated the state of the world from alternative perspectives and questioned attitudes and opinions. He shared how attitudes have played a major role in future development and achieving the dreams, through his personal experiences as a tailor and travelling around the world as a producer and host of award-winning ‘Kill Arman’ (sold to over 100 countries) and ‘Arman ja viimeinen ristiretki‘ [Arman and the Last Crusade]. Arman brought eye-opening and thought-provoking perspective on how trust and understanding are created through openness, conversation and doing together – and through these understanding each other. This very well applies to bringing two different worlds together in ICT and Arts.
In the evening of the first day, there was a networking session with a keynote from Paula Ylisassi, a business development manager at OP Financial Group, with the theme of ‘Technology as a catalyst for creativity – Human leads, technology follows’. With her keynote, Paula shared especially insight on the integration of creative competence (human) and technology in the future business. The keynote served as an inspiring “warm-up”, especially for the following speed-dating session.
Technology isn’t a solution. Technology is a great raw material for creative problem solving of the future. Paula Ylisassi
The second day on October 7th started with a “brunch” networking session before the actual program again with general presentations, two keynotes and a workshopping session. The first keynote was by Sani Leino with the theme of ’Social Selling’. Leino is a pioneering coach in emotionally intelligent and social selling with award-winning achievements in B2B and B2C sales (ranked among top 100 social selling influencers in the world), with special expertise in the ICT. In the event, Leino shared especially various practical tips on how to make better social media presence in terms of selling your own know-how
The second keynote of the day was served by Jani Aaltonen with the theme of ‘Automation of sales and marketing’. Aaltonen is a CEO of Salescommunications Finland Ltd., helping thousands of companies on better marketing. With his keynote, Aaltonen brought insight on the biggest trends around and on what enterprises should focus now and in future.
After the keynote was time for the concluding workshop where participants were encouraged to make marketing videos of themselves and/or their products/organisations. This pushed people out of their comfort zone helping with not only in giving practical means for selling and marketing but also networking in general. All in all, the event was very well received bringing the two worlds of ICT and arts together as well as meshing with many others.
