Reflections on Slush 2022

Having experienced Slush more than 10 times over the years, in different capacities – as a student, as a service designer, as a demo owner, an investor seeker and as representative of the large company - I feel like I have uncovered quite many layers of opportunities that this platform brings.

Together with colleagues from Tietoevry, this year we raised the topics of ecosystem building and fortification. As one of the Locomotive Companies, Tietoevry has an important role in the Nordic market to facilitate the creation and growth of strong long-lasting collaborative business models. The mission of the Tietoevry locomotive initiative titled Trusted Digital Societies is to develop affordable, accessible and trusted digital services for citizens.

By the end of the Slush 2022 experience a few things became very clear:

1. Despite the geo-political environment affecting Europe and global markets, the amount of funding and willingness to invest in early-stage ideas has been growing. The access to capital and support that comes with it from experienced teams is available for entrepreneurs who set out to change the world. This has been evident also on the local Finnish level via the amount of co-innovation applications submitted to Business Finland by our ecosystem partners.
2. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion as well as specifically gender balance are very important topics for organizations of all sizes and backgrounds. We searched for a working model in terms of attracting more diverse team members to the ecosystem in order to create truly futureproof and inclusive digital solutions for the citizens. However, yet until this day, there are no silver bullets. It is the responsibility of every single actor to make things happen and spark change. A beautiful example originates from Tietoevry, an IT girl campaign that encourages young girls to raise their confidence level and take on roles in the IT sector.
3. Focusing on sustainability and changing the world for good are among the top drivers in investors’ decisions. This year more than ever, conversations with start-up founders and investors alike raised the importance of considering how solutions impact overall positive developments in the world, starting from the local community. We met a lot of brilliant entrepreneurs driving change in the areas of finance, healthcare and energy and skilfully using disruptive technology to achieve their ambitious goals. And that’s exactly where the power of ecosystem and co-creation comes to play an important role – together we can accelerate the best innovation becoming available to larger audiences.

Trusted Digital Societies Programme

Having launched the program only at the beginning of the year we have been eagerly looking forward to Slush sharing the opportunities we identified with the younger companies and startup teams. Together with our existing and new ecosystem partners, we aim to accelerate the development of trusted technologies and technological know-how. As a multinational company, our strength is the ability to help Finnish IT companies to build globally scalable business value from responsible data-enabled platforms.

This programme is part of a Business Finland funded initiative to solve some of society’s most pressing challenges through increased research, development, and innovation investments in Finland. Tietoevry is inviting partners to join the ecosystem for research collaboration.

Fill out the short form and our team will be in touch.

Images: People listening to the Trusted Digital Societies presentation at the Tietoevry booth, Iftikhar Ahmad meeting startuppers, and Ksenia Avetisova enjoying the Slush atmosphere.