speaking gig

Here's a short list of upcoming evens you can find me in.

First of all the event I blogged about previously in here, got moved to a new date; 4th of Novermber 2010. So far we have managed to secure some amazing speakers; Andreas Ehn (Spotify, Stardoll, currently at his new stealth startup), Timo Soininen (Sulake), and Andreas von Koskull (Mr. Goodliving, Sauma). The event will be at Korjaamo in Helsinki. You can sign up through this link here. The event is part of the IBP programme and is financed by the EU through ESR.

20.9.2010 I will be on the FInnish Internet Forum, at the parliament building, speaking for a brief while and then as a panel member. This event is also streamed to the interwebz so you can watch it from your own couch.

30.9.2010 I will be a speaker and a panelist at an event called "Vuoden Veemäisin Yrittäjätapahtuma", part II. Finnish language program only, click the link for details and signup. Other speakers will be the country manager of Microsoft Finland, Google Finland's head of industry Ari Ojansivu, and sales director Kimmo Laaksonen from Elisa. The topic is a really juicy interesting one: Ethics and morality.

5.10.2010 WIll be speaking in Tampere at the local entrepreneurship association's event. About social media and digital marketing. Other speakers from various companies.

6.10.2010 I'll be at MindTrek in Tampere, and also running a full day "IBP Camp" training session at Demola. Details are here. I'll be co-running it together with Prof (emer) Reijo Luostarinen, for a full 8 hours straight. It's likely to be in finnish, but if some english-only participants sign up, then the language will switch. The topic is really interesting: how to design your company's strategy and operations for success? How's all that done? What to consider? etc.

7.10.2010 I'll be at MindTrek proper; as a one of the panelists/judges for the MindTrek launchpad.

8.10.2010 There's a Noridc Open event in Tallin, Estonia. I'll be speaking in the afternoon programme and as a panelist later on.

12.10.2010 I'll be speaking at HMEA's Entrepreneur Tuesday event. In Espoo.

13.10.2010 There's an IBP pitching clinic for internationally aspiring companies; to pitch and win a 18K EUR funding package and close up support for the UK market. Details and signup are here. Other pitching panelists include Mr. Steve Smith from Software City, UK, and Mikko-Jussi Suonenlahti from Veraventure.

14.10.2010 There's an entrepreneur event for women in Joensuu, organized by Nordea Bank. I'll be one of the keynote speakers. Will probably be there with Google's country manager, Anni.

21.10.2010 Itella is organizing an e-commerce event in Helsinki. I'll be the main outside key note speaker there. This is an invite-only event I think.. (ask me if you think you could benefit from an invite).

2.11.2010 e-learning centre of Finland is organizing an event in Vanajanlinna. I'll be the key note speakers for the day there. Programme & signup here.

4.11.2010 is the first mentioned event with very good key note speakers - be there!

12.11.2010 I'll be briefly introducing a topic for discussion at Tieke's breakfast event.

18.11.2010 Marketing Talks -event by Metropolia polytechnic. I'll be speaking to students about tech entrepreneurship.

... hmm that's quite a few events and such for this fall. Be in touch if I can help you with any info regarding any of the events. Hope to see you in some of them!

It certainly has been a busy 2010 so far. Two startups I have worked with closed their financing rounds recently. Seems like 2010 has a lot more optimism and positive energy packed into it! There's event talk of some juicy IPO prospects this year.. if only..

The end of 2009 also saw me getting placed to the Vigo Programme steering group (led by Risto Siilasmaa). I am hoping to contribute in the renewal and reinventing of startup and growth company funding in Finland. The programme certainly has some good and ambitious goals, and plenty of work ahead of it.

My last blog entry was about a TV chat (again, sorry, they keep wanting me back, and I keep going.. ) That's now Online here behind this link. Big thanks to Vesa Palmu for that!

This spring I'll be "outing" quite a bit. I'm going to be out there to present about various topics and have sparring sessions with startups etc. Here's a list of upcoming events where I'll be around:

Jan 22 - Talking about social media at a SAP event
Jan 26 - Talking about social media at an MTL event
Jan 27 - Coaching and sparring startups in Hämeenlinna
Feb 3 - Coaching and sparring startups in Kouvula
Feb 4 - Speaking at a Nixu event
Feb 9-10 - Sparring startups in Tampere
Feb 16 Sparring startups in Vaasa
Feb 25 - Speaking about social media at TAMK event in Tampere
Mar 3 - Speaking about social media at a Nordea event in Turku
Mar 11 - Speaking about social media in Tampere at an entrepreneur event
Mar 18 - Speaking at a Microsoft event
Mar 23 - Speaking (or lecturing?) at TKK school in Otaniemi
Mar 25 - Panelist in an event of Innovation Journalism
May 5 - Speaking about social media in Tampere at a TAKK event

Btw the "coaching and sparring startups" events are FREE for companies to attend and all the places are not booked yet. Sign up from here.

Why do I get around that much and take on speaking assignments? There are a few reasons why I do it;

1) I meet interesting people and expand my network. This happens almost every time, always a big plus. After presenting people usually want to talk to me, that is, if they haven't boo'ed me off stage..

2) an entrepreneur needs to be a decent presenter. This helps hone the skill and keep a good touch to it. If you haven't presented in a while, you kind of loose touch. Getting out there and just doing it is good practice and comes in as a valuable competence when presenting your new startup to audiences - not to mention investors.

3) Hopefully I also have something useful to say - and it would be actually beneficial for people to attend a talk, listen and have a chat. This is a way to keep that in check and get feedback - if people hate it, they will say it.

.. There isn't that kind of money in speaking gigs that it would be financially very smart to do this as a job. If you plan on maximizing the money alone, my advice for you would be; focus on building up the value of your company and forget a hobby like this one ;-)

However, we all know that Finns especially need the practice when it comes to pitching and presenting. I am no exception there. Go for the opportunities to pitch & present and practice, practice, practice.. If you plan on being a successful entrepreneur you will need the skill in so many encounters along the way. Even consider taking one of those PR training courses where they video your presentation and force you to watch it. I have one two of those: highly useful and always humbling..

It has been a while since I last blogged anything. Seems like the "doing" part is overwhelming the "writing" part, for now at least.

Honestly one of the reasons why I have become a less active blogger lately has to do with how rewarding and motivating writing a blog really is. Sadly I have noticed that people are far less active and give far less feedback than I would have hoped. This almost directly results in declining motivation and writing less, even tho I probably would have a little "something" to say about a few things still..

Anyways here's some upcoming things for the fall:

Next Monday, on the 21st of September I will be chatting at MTV3 morning TV show "Good Morning Finland" again. This time it's going to be about a medical-genetics startup I have been working on pretty much all summer. I will be there with Tuija Takala who is a specialist/scientist in ethics. We are discussing the possibilities of genetics, pharmacogenomics, personalized medicine and ethical implications thereof. The new startup is based on patented inventions on genetic information systems and processing; the end product is system which can optimize and recommend your diet, lifestyle implications, medication and therapies. Basically it gives you deeply personalized knowledge that allows you to live healthier longer life.

The next day, on Tuesday the 22nd I will be speaking at an event organized by Sefe, the Finnish Association of Business School Graduates, or more specifically their entrepreneurship "wing".

At the turn of the month I'll be at MindTrek ( http://www.mindtrek.org/2009/ ) giving a brief talk before the startup company pitches.

On 7th of October I'll be speaking at an entrepreneurship conference in Tallin, Estonia. The attendants are mainly students and aspiring entrepreneurs. Good stuff, sounds like a great event full of positive energy.

On November the 12th I'll be in Lahti, speaking at an event by MBE about social media, recommendations, and the like. This would be all in finnish.

Later in November I'll be speaking in the invite-only CEO-only event FICTA in Levi. About social media and it's implications to strategy.

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Besides speaking what else is there?

We'll I'm seriously considering co-writing a finnish-language book on entrepreneurship and startups. This would be the kind of "spill it all out and give advice" -typeof guide book, where I would try to highlight everything I find important and meaningful in startup building and success. Digital version of the book is a must, as probably is an International version as well. There seems to be none of these kind of books around in finnish language. Please do tell me if this is a bad idea, so I can save myself the trouble ;)

I am also working on 3 different startups, finding out about if we get them really going, funded, cast with great teams etc. Interesting times certainly!

First I have to be a bit apologetic about blogging too much about my own speaking gigs and such shameless self-promotion. Writing something with more substance has had to take a back seat in the busy dealings of the startup world. However that might change quite soon as I now have more time on my hands to concentrate on writing something with more substance. So, perhaps you'll see a few blog entries like "ye olden days" here again soon, stay tuned.

Meanwhile; I'll be having a chat in a seminar organized by Deasign Finland at Teatteri on May the 5th. The event is open for signups and you have around 5 days of time to go and sign up though their site:

http://www.deasign.com/su

(all in Finnish, as is the presentation itself).

The target audience is marketing executives etc of companies in both; the b-2-b and b-2-c space. Feel free to tip your contacts (and encourage them to sign up) ; this is a good chance to come and have some brunch, and a few good takeaways if we are lucky.

About a week from now I will also be talking in an event organized by the VCs in Finland (their own internal event). About what's going on in the social media space and how they should value and evaluate social media companies.

What would you say to them about that? What do you think is the most essential criteria or quality or quantity in a social media company that they should look at? Revenue? Visitors? Team? Ideas? Potential? all of those?

Let your voice be heard and I promise you this; if you come up with a good one, I'll use that and mention from whom I got it from ;-)

In about 2 weeks time I'll be here:

http://www.v2c.info/

At the Global Venture Lab - V2C Forum event in Jyväskylä.
(takes place 23-24 March)

Here's some info about GVL directly from their site:

"Global Venture Lab is a university based business creation platform dedicated to problems worth solving. GVL is empowered by globally connected faculty, students, and alumni of business competence.

The first GVL kickoff took place in the USA, at UC Berkeley, on November 21, 2008, followed by India and IIT Kharagpur, on January 8. The GVL kickoff in Finland, at JYU, on March 23, 2009, marks the birth of the GVL Network."

Here's a link to a PDF with the full 2 day program in it.

The event is free. If you are around, come say hi!