Metropolitan Marketing in the Baltic Sea Region – Current Outlook, Best Practices, Future Visions Sep 07, Riga, Latvia

Greater Helsinki Promotion Ltd Started operations in 10/2006 Investment Promotion Agency for the Helsinki region Owned by: Current annual funding from owners: €3.5 million 5 person full-time staff Contact info: AddressMechelininkatu 1 a – Helsinki - Finland Tel Fax Internet

Current innovation & knowledge based activities in city marketing Focus areas Best practices Focus of Marketing Efficient | Effective | Creative Concrete Activities R&D | Design | Market Testing Talent pool Future & existing areas of expertise Foundation Safe, stable and tolerant operating environment Top-down, bottom-up approach to promotion Top-down: holistic, strategic, long-term, one piece of the place development puzzle Bottom-up: results focused, project-based activities Helsinki Alliance Collaborative, honest, strong-willed Inclusive Win-win situations Differentiation

Necessity of profiling Helsinki in the BSR context Opportunities Threats Collaboration is smart Focus on growing the whole pie not our piece of the pie Critical mass (110 million people, GDP is 16% of EU) Dynamic economic development Active bilateral relations Complimentaries BSR does not exist in the minds of people Road to a BSR brand is long and the path must not compromise Helsinki or Finland brands Gap between declarations and actions Lack of trust and honest win- win-win thinking ”Big brother attitude problem”

Comments on ”Baltic Sea Archipelago of Innovation & Entrepreneurship” brand Baltic Sea Region does not exist in the minds of people. Long-road Branding trends: Nations to Major cities toward 2nd-tier cities BaltMet’s internationally recognized position in the area of science and technology based entrepreneurship should be at the very core of a future Baltic Sea brand Do we know this to be true? Even if it is true, is it inclusive enough? Historically only 50% of investments should come from core areas. Is it true? Is it unique? Is it simple?

Concrete examples for joint marketing with other Baltic Metropolises Transatlantic Research & Business Accelerator MobileMonday International events International roadshows Benchmarking activities

Transatlantic Research & Business Accelerator (TRBA) Info processing and disclosure Quickscan of TRBA regions Customized & detailed info disclosure Partnering & matchmaking Business & subsidy support services Phase 1: Basic servicesPhase 2: Optional extended services Region A Region B High tech SME / Research organization with internationalization intentions Internationalized High tech SME / Research organization pilot in 10 regions; extended in 2010 Regions are Helsinki, Delft, Washington DC, Boston, Silicon Valley, Atlantic Canada

MobileMonday Community of mobile industry visionaries, developers and influencers fostering cooperation & cross-border business development through virtual and live networking events. Started in Helsinki in 2000 Now over 60 chapters around the world including BaltMet cities of Copenhagen, Riga, Stockholm, St. Petersburg, Warsaw Global Summit 2007 Helsinki – St. Petersburg

Other activities International events World Expo in Shanghai 2010 International roadshows China / India roadshows (in cooperation with IIS) Benchmarking Denmark Capital Region benchmarking study