Experience
Students talking to students
Three days in a country that built around one university a system where students found companies on their own, while studying, and that today exports that model. It is the only experience in the catalog where the people you meet are the same age as the participants.
On this page
Fact sheet
- Days
- 3
- Cities
- Helsinki and Espoo
- Recommended season
- all year, January included, with a note on the hours of daylight
- Group
- 15 to 20 participants
- Language of the visits
- English; confirmed on booking
- Schengen days used
- 3 out of 90, counting the day of entry and the day of exit
- Price
- Quotation on request
→ Request a quotation · Download the itinerary in PDF
In the quotation we write which sites are confirmed and which are being confirmed, one by one.
Itinerary day by day
Day 1 — Helsinki. The startup campus
In the afternoon, Maria 01, on Lapinlahdenkatu: a private visit of about an hour and a half, with a walk around the campus and a presentation by the team. It is a site that receives more than thirty international delegations a year and that in its own material explicitly includes students among those it receives.
In the evening, a two-hour opening session: preparing the next day, which is the good one.
Day 2 — Espoo. The student hub
In the morning, Startup Sauna, on Puumiehenkuja: it is the hub of Finnish student entrepreneurship, and it houses the communities and the programs the students run themselves, from the largest hackathon in Europe to the acceleration programs born inside the university.
We say plainly why this is the stop we recommend most in the whole European catalog: for a group of young university entrepreneurs, talking to student entrepreneurs is worth more than any visit to a large company, because they are the only people on the trip who are doing right now what the group is thinking of doing.
In the afternoon, A Grid, on the Otaniemi campus: the same place houses the university incubator, a United Nations technology innovation laboratory, a European Space Agency incubator and the city's business services. A community of some one hundred and fifty startups and partners.
Day 3 — The work
In the morning, a three-hour working session: what in that system can be exported to a Mexican university and what cannot, with the players and the money it would take.
In the afternoon, eight-minute presentations and closing.
What you visit
| Place | What it is | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Maria 01, Helsinki | Startup campus, private visit of about 90 minutes with a walk and a presentation by the team, also offered to student delegations | On request |
| Startup Sauna, Espoo | Hub of student entrepreneurship, houses communities and programs run by students | On request |
| A Grid, Otaniemi campus, Espoo | Site housing the university incubator, a United Nations technology laboratory, a European Space Agency incubator and the city's business services | On request |
What this experience does not include today, and we write it ourselves
This experience does not include a visit to the large Finnish telecommunications company, nor to the city's economic development agency, nor to the university design laboratory: for none of the three did we find a visit program for delegations, so we do not name them and we do not promise them.
All three sites in this experience are on request, that is to say they have a public contact channel but no price list and no automatic confirmation. It is the European experience with the highest share of sites still to be confirmed, and we say so ourselves rather than letting it be discovered at the quotation stage. The quotation states, one by one, which of them answered.
What is included and what is not
Included: the visits to the confirmed sites, the booking and coordination with whoever receives the group, the guided working sessions totalling five hours, the materials, one person from the Istituto with the group throughout the experience and the certificate of participation in the experience.
Not included: flight, transfers to and from the airport, transfers to Espoo, lodging, meals, urban transport, personal travel insurance.
The season, and why
It is sold all year, January included.
In January Helsinki has very few hours of daylight, and the itinerary is built around the light and not around the alarm clock: the visits sit in the middle of the day and the working sessions at either end. We do not give a number of hours because we did not measure it and we do not invent it: we give the rule we build the day with, which is what the group needs in order to decide.
Logistics and capacity
Espoo is reached from Helsinki overland in under half an hour; the group does not change hotel. The recommended group is 15 people: it is the size that reaches the group rates without going over the access limits of the visits, which at these sites go up to 25. Above 20 the itinerary splits into two slots, the day gets longer and the cost per person does not go down. None of the three sites publishes a ceiling: capacity is agreed at the time of the request, and it is one of the things the quotation states.
Cover
The program includes an accident and public liability policy for the whole stay. The sums insured, the insurer and the policy number are published once it is taken out and are attached to the contract; until then they can be requested in writing, with an answer within two working days.
Do you want it to count as training, with a certificate? This experience can be built into an Istituto program, with classroom hours, a piece of work to deliver and a certificate of attendance. → For groups
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Let us talk about this route
We answer within two working days with the dates, the day by day program and the quotation.