A half-day ARTES workshop was organised in Espoo, Finland on May 8^th . The event focused on ARTES 3-4 and 5 programmes and was the first of its kind in Finland, bringing the Finnish telecommunication community together in order to explore and discuss the potentials for doing business with ESA. The main industry from this field was present, and the networking was lively and fruitful.

The workshop was hosted by VTT and co-organised from the Ambassador Platform Finland and Tekes (national delegation). Close to 30 delegates attended the workshop, of which 4 came from ESA. The participants came from the industry; only VTT represented the research community.

After the opening speech, ESA delegates gave 5 presentations on Satcom Market, Partnership Opportunities, ARTES Products and Applications and Newcomers Initiative. These were followed by two presentations about the experience of working with ESA.

The workshop was followed by one-to-one meetings in the afternoon. The meetings were organised in two parallel sessions between ESA delegates and Finnish industry. All 9 companies signed up for the meetings and most of them for both sessions. The company feedback regarded these one-to-one meetings as top priority.

The event initiated various user ideas and project proposals. These will be followed-up by further discussions. The ARTES 3-4 SATCOM-APPS Newcomers Initiative will also be given extra attention and promotion to attract newcomers from Finnish SMEs.

The presentations from the workshop are available for download at: Dropbox (zipped file, 16.85 MB).

The European Space Agency's Integrated Application Promotion Programme and Tekes are organising a seminar at the Finnish Meteorological Institute Brainstorm auditorium on 26 September 2013. The IAP Ambassador Platforms APBSR and APFin will participate in the overall arrangements.

The IAP - Integrated Application Promotion - programme aims at developing and promoting applications and services using space assets like telecommunication, earth observation, navigation and human space flight technologies. Integrating space data with terrestrial systems brings up a whole new sphere of business potential and innovation. In order to secure sustainable services, a close cooperation with end-users, solution and service providers, as well as major stakeholders is essential.

The seminar discusses new potential applications and services, and serves as a networking platform for establishing new contacts, creating new ideas and building up partnerships for new business opportunities.

Three major themes will be presented:

Smart traffic, forest and electricity grid.

The sessions will include perspectives from research, enterprise and end-users.

The seminar will be in English, starting with coffee & refreshments at 8.30 am.

Registration by 20 September 2013 to anni.salminen@geowise.fi

More information:
Miranda Saarentaus, tel. +358 40 747 8822
miranda.saarentaus@geowise.fi

Antti Jokinen, tel. +358 40 552 9658
antti.jokinen@bsag.fi