The City Guidance Ecosystem project developed city guidance in Turku, Tampere and Helsinki. The premise was that guidance has not previously been sufficiently utilised to increase the attractiveness of urban centres and enhance companies’ business possibilities. The project focused on developing guidance for normal situations and for guiding large groups of people.
Results of the City Guidance Ecosystem project
- The City Guidance Ecosystem project developed new concepts as well as products and services for domestic and international markets. Approximately 200 companies took part in the project, in addition to which training was provided to nearly a hundred companies.
- The project carried out a total of 27 experiments and five pilots, which involved the development of the likes of:
- the event application Tampere Events
- a service for measuring the flow of people in Turku
- the utilisation of guidance pylons at the Aurajoki riverbank in Turku as part of the piloting of a new guidance concept
- information displays compiling sights, services and events in the Tampere region and providing traffic information and navigational guidance
- Bluetooth beacons at the tramway construction sites in Tampere to make it easier for people to get around during the construction
- mobile guidance on the building history of Tampere’s Central Square and the Hiedanranta area
- website-based mobile guidance at Helsinki’s Market Square through the further development of a Events App
- indoor guidance at Turku University of Applied Sciences.
- In Turku, the project developed a guidance concept encompassing the entire city. In Helsinki, an existing guidance concept and related project programme were updated as regards digital guidance. In Tampere, the project developed the City’s digital guidance services particularly in response to needs related to event guidance and guidance in exceptional situations and piloted a pedestrian guidance concept.
- Cooperation with the project led to new recruitment at several companies (for example, Hypercell Industries recruited four new employees and Design Studio Muotohiomo recruited one). Four participating companies are currently selling products created during the project, and several others are in the process of further developing their ideas. One participating company started R&D&I cooperation with Turku University of Applied Sciences.
- The project developed the smart guidance ecosystem and related functions in many ways, such as by organising various events and training courses (a total of 37 events in Turku) and by building cooperation networks between cities and companies. These networks gave rise to new business, and companies also engaged in cooperation with one another. In Helsinki, the entrepreneurs and innovation companies of the Market Square were invited to join a Developer Panel to plan and implement experiments and pilots. The project also organised 15 events in Helsinki, including an international seminar with Forum Virium Helsinki.
The goal of the City Guidance Ecosystem project was to create new business for companies, carry out guidance pilots and experiments in cities, create and implement comprehensive guidance plans in cities and develop an innovation platform for guidance. By achieving the aforementioned goals, the aim was to create a city guidance ecosystem for the participating cities, the active operators of which would include cities, companies, the authorities, development organisations and universities. The project was coordinated by Turku Science Park Oy, with the other project partners being the City of Turku, the City of Helsinki, Turku University of Applied Sciences and the City of Tampere. The project ran from 1 September 2017 to 31 December 2019 and had a budget of EUR 2,086,705.
Read more about the experiments at itsasign.fi
Further information
Elina Malén
Project Manager
Turku Science Park Oy
elina.malen(at)turkubusinessregion.com, tel. +358 (0) 400 748 306