UPM also organized a cocktail event at the Biofore House on Tuesday and participated in the Smart & Clean Future event organized by Sitra (the Finnish Innovation Fund) on Thursday. Smart & Clean brought together corporations, start-ups, and municipalities to discuss the future of a more sustainable urban environment. Both companies and start-ups presented their solutions. The city Mayors of Helsinki, Vantaa, Espoo and Lahti discussed how their growing cities work towards sustainable and more livable urban environment.
Petteri Kalela’s, VP, New Business, UPM Paper ENA, pitch at the Smart & Clean Future event focused on UPM’s Biofore strategy and innovation work. UPM is searching for partners to collaborate with in writing new chapters to the story of a more renewable future.
Petteri Kalela, VP, New Business, UPM Paper ENA, pitching at the Smart & Clean Future Slush side event on Thursday.
But that's not all. UPM was one of the main partners in the Slush Youth event targeted to high school students on Thursday. Approximately 300 students from Finland and Sweden got to practice important skills related to entrepreneurship in various workshops. UPM’s theme of the day was Sustainable business. For UPM the workshop is a new way of co-operating with educational institutes.
Before Slush UPM also participated in the Junction hackathon, where in just 48 hours our team developed a mobile application for locating paper rolls. Great work!
Participating in Slush is not only refreshing, fun, and inspiring, but it is also an important channel for making connections and finding new partners. In his blog post UPM’s Executive Vice President of Technology Jyrki Ovaska writes how UPM has developed its approach from using subcontractors to more equal collaborations. In these collaborations the agile startups bring UMP the kind of dexterity that a big, traditional forest company does not necessarily have.
In the coming years UPM wants to strengthen its collaborative efforts with research facilities, organizations, and municipalities as well as startups. Circular economy is built together. Do you want to take part? Read more about UPM’s innovation work here
Waste is no longer waste but valuable raw material.
A discussion about the future of music.
Virtual reality experiences were offered to Slush guests.
Slush CEO Marianne Vikkula presenting Nordic investors at Slush 2016.
Even Trump made it to Slush.
Saara Töyssy
