The Grand Opening… to new possibilities
After a lot of hard work by the team and community members and anticipation, The Shortcut Lab is officially open! Yes, and we celebrated with an open house party which was an evening full of pleasant surprises. The first one was receiving over 250 guests from 57 different nationalities, occupations, backgrounds and interests… talk about diversity. Working on the organisation of a party for such an amazing and interesting crowd was fun and motivating. We set a friendly environment that allowed guests to feel at home and find activities for themselves. The team received the best possible feedback that we could have received which was that the attendees enjoyed all the activities we prepared for them: networking, playing VR games, speeches and music. And we can’t forget the karaoke.
We had the honor of having Ilkka Paananen, CEO of Supercell, give the opening speech and his words resonated with many of us. He spoke about the value of the mission of The Shortcut not only for international companies such as Supercell but also for Finland. His envisioned Helsinki as a hub of international talent and as an inclusive place that welcomes people from all over the world. In his view, having the best people is the key ingredient to success, and in the case of his company about 60% of the team comes from outside Finland. It is important for Ilkka to keep his diverse workforce happy not only at work but also in daily life. In that respect, Ilkka spoke about the importance of the successful integration of the family members of his employees too, and he believes that the work of The Shortcut can support that important aspect. He also shared his dream of Helsinki becoming a place such as Silicon Valley where creation of companies can impact the life of hundreds of millions of people, and he adds: “if we think about it, there really is no fundamental reason why the next Google couldn’t be born here in Helsinki. There really is not. But in order to achieve it, we need to be a way more global city”. We agree! And we believe that with the right people one can make it happen.
Next on stage was Anne Badan, CEO and Co-founder of The Shortcut, event’s MC Sharbel introduced her as the person behind putting our family together. Anne spoke about the value we create at The Shortcut and its origins. The concept is a result of a discussion between Anne and Moaffak Ahmed, serial entrepreneur and investor, where they talked about putting Marlon Parker and Ilkka Paananen in the same room to discuss about the situation in Finland in terms of inclusion. That is how the idea of bringing people from diverse background to the already successful startup ecosystem originally sprung at Slush 2015. The mission is to encourage and empower more people from diverse backgrounds to consider startups as a career option, be it as an entrepreneur or by utilising their talent while working for one. Startups facilitate such integration because technology has no color, no boundaries and is not restricted to local languages as they aim at being competitive on the global market. The mission is supported by three pillars of activities: inspiration and empowerment, acquisition of skills and job creation. Following Anne, Mia (Xiaotong) Yun, our Programmes lead, invited everybody to attend our upcoming events like the Coding Club and our flagship event the School of Startups. Yesmith Sánchez invited the community to discover The Shortcut Lab, Community and Training Center in the heart of the hottest nordic hub for startups right now, Maria 01. The activities happening at the lab focus on supporting integration of those who for one reason or another may feel inadequate in Finnish society and ultimately avoid the under-utilisation of skilled individuals. This has an effect on individuals but also companies that can benefit from international talents. In addition to the impact on an economic growth level,integration and optimisation of skills bring a better, fairer society.
Marlon Parker, Founder of RLabs closed the special occasion. He is the very personification of what RLabs stands for: “making hope contagious” . Marlon reminded us of the power of an idea and doing something about it. RLabs is an inspiring story that started as an idea “wanting to make a difference in the community”. Marlon secured funding from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Finland to start RLabs which is now a reality in 23 countries supporting community growth. And these words shall stay with us: “Believe in the intention; it is about making the impossible possible.”
The open house party was an applause from us to all of those who have made the existence of The Shortcut possible, our way to open the doors to our community.
We’d like to acknowledge the supporters and sponsors of this event, making the occasion even more special. Our standing ovation to: Macwell Creative for all the support in getting the lab ready as well as support with logistics for the event. Nosto, Raikastamo, Saimaan Juomatehdas for their generous sponsorships as well as Kansleri for keeping bellies happy. 3rd Eye Studios for bringing virtual reality games accessible to our guests and of course Jamié and Music for Friends for the music beats. Singa, brought a lot of fun and made the singer-wannabes have an awesome time too! Last but certainly not least, a big THANKS to the volunteers who made possible this event from the planning to the execution. You make The Shortcut great.
The Shortcut Lab is a project of Suomi 100 and it is possible thanks to the generosity of our supporters: Macwell Creative, Supercell, Slush, Avance, Catalina, Quicksave, Superhero Capital, Vertical Accelerator, Startup Sauna, Aaltoes, Kaskas Media, Kone Centennial Foundation, PwC, Yousician, Yksitysyrittäjäin Säätiö, ecraft, Smartly.io, Teknologiateollisuuden 100-vuotisäätiö, Maria 01, Ramboll, Catalina, Kokku, RTV, Visual Concept, and Aalto University.
