Introducing the finnfacts.fi tour + the Nokia visit
So, last week I was invited to Finland to check out their startups and the overall techscene – also I visited the Mindtrek conference as a part of the tour. The program was packed with really cool startups, inspiration and great people (especially my tourmates who I hanged out with for 4 days where nothing short of phenomenal people)..
After arriving to Helsinki last tuesday the first company to check out was the Nokia Research Center and the Nokia Betalab where we where introduced IRL to some of their newest projects. fx Nokia Point & Find
Also the braille reader and their gaze-tracking glasses was shown to us. It was all good and well, but I felt a bit underestimated as a blogger – maybe because I thought that Nokia would use the possibility of having some of the smartest bloggers (writing for some of the biggest blogs) to show new stuff. Not that the above mentioned projects aren’t new – but they are already on the internet… (which in tech-age isn’t new)
I had done some research on both Nokia Research and Betalabs before going to Finland and all the projects that they showed to us I had already checked out prior to the visit to Nokia. It’s all good and well, but I would have used this fantastic opportunity to launch something exclusively via the bloggers who visited and make it a more underground launch. Also I had really hoped to get to toy around with some of the newest cutting edge phones…
I guess what I am saying is that I saw this as a wasted opportunity to actually reach some of the people interested in tech with something new, not by normal PR but by showing stuff to us that weren’t out there before.
However it was very inspiring to see the demo’s live and kickin – and Nokia has some of the nicest and coolest people working for them =)
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2 Responses
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Henriette
Hi Tommi – don’t get me wrong it was awesome being at Nokia and I thing you guys are doing some really neat stuff… I was just thinking that you might be able to use it for further reference when you have some of the coolest bloggers coming to party at your house=)
Hmm… Good point. Though, it’s quite difficult to time beta launches at the time of this kind of ad-hoc visit. We would have needed to postpone something, or launch something at too immature phase. Still, missed opportunity, I agree.
About not being able to play around with the new phones etc., you went to the wrong place!! At the Nokia House = headquarters, they have the latest phones that you can play with. It makes me a bit sad that you only saw the NRC & Beta Labs side of Nokia story – as there would have been a lot more…
Anyway, thanks for taking the time to visit us!!
cheers,
– tommi