Events Together in Espoo programme aims for both vitality and well-being

The Chair of the Programme, Joel Vanhanen (National Coalition Party), opened the event by pointing out that events are not just nice leisure activities but are of great importance for the vitality of the city.

“We still have work to do to make everyone understand how much income is generated for the region by events,” Vanhanen said.

Programme Manager Lea Rintala illustrated the matter by figures: The event sector employs about 10,500 people in Uusimaa, and the national turnover of the sector is more than €2.35 billion.

“For example, concert audiences often can’t see the enormous amount of work done in the background. The purpose of our new programme is to create conditions for behind-the-scenes activities: in other words, to make it easier to organise events,” Rintala said.

The steering group of the Events Together in Espoo programme includes elected officials from various parties and office holders from various divisions of the city. The programme and its steering group primarily serve as a creator of new ideas and builder of networks.

The clearest goal is to lay the foundations for a stronger event culture in Espoo, increasing the vitality of the region, cooperation between the city, companies, organisations and residents and, as a result, the communality and well-being of Espoo residents.

“We should work together in networks. Not just among ourselves, but with companies, residents, Espoo’s other development programmes and other interest groups,” Vanhanen said.

Päivi Hoverfält, Program Director at the City of Espoo, introduced the principles of programme work to the steering group. She also stressed the importance of close cooperation:

“Programmes are platforms for development and experimentation. Programmes differ from individual experiments in that they can focus on longer-term development. The approach can be bolder and more experimental. The outputs of programmes may vary greatly: shopping centre walks for seniors are a good example of an idea that emerged in programme work, became an experiment and was then established as a permanent activity.”

During the programme launch workshop, the steering group members were also introduced to the Espoo Story, the objectives for the council term and Espoo as an operating environment for events and were given an exemplary presentation on restaurant events coordinated by the City of Helsinki on the Senate Square in summer 2020 and Kasarmitori Square in summer 2021.

After the presentations, the workshop part started with the aim of establishing a common understanding:

• When we talk about events or the community, what are we talking about?
• When we talk about Espoo, are we talking about the city organisation or more extensively?
• What has already been developed and what can we utilise?
• What are the other programmes doing – are we avoiding overlaps?

The key objectives for the programme period started to take shape little by little as small individual ideas were combined and pruned in changing small groups. The work will continue on 13 December 2021, when the steering group will meet remotely to work on the target benefits for the programme period. They are expected to be presented to the City Council in February 2022.

The City of Espoo’s cross-administrative development programmes are collaborative platforms where we develop innovative solutions through experiments and pilots together with partners in accordance with the Espoo Story. The development programmes for the council term 2021–2025 are:

• Dynamic Espoo
• Healthy Espoo
• Sustainable Espoo
• Events Together in Espoo.

You can follow the progress of the Events Together in Espoo programme on the programme website.

In social media, the programme uses the following hashtags:

• Finnish: #TapahtumaEspoo
• Swedish: #EvenemangsEsbo
• English: #EventEspoo.

We encourage our networks to use the same hashtags in all communications related to Espoo events, regardless of whether the event is organised by the city or another party in Espoo. This way, we can increase each other’s visibility and build a shared communication basis for our city full of events.