Business delegation in Madrid with Sport Finland network

The Sport Finland network, jointly led by the cities of Jyväskylä, Lahti and Kuopio, and operating as a lead project according to the InnoCities community (Exercise and well-being Sport Finland 2024), organized a business delegation trip to Madrid in April. The purpose was to provide Finnish participating companies (Pro Recovery, ONIT Sport, Ketoinen, Wello2, eWatt Smart Power System, Awesome Crowd, SAHA Training) pace from the global sport markets. They presented their activities at various locations, including the headquarters of LALIGA, the SportBoost Accelerator and Global Sport Innovation Center. Additionally, they established contacts for themselves during a networking event hosted by the Finnish Ambassador to Spain.

From the perspective of intercity collaboration facilitated by Sport Finland, the delegation trip opened doors to implementing international networks related to local ecosystem agreements (Jyväskylä Elinkeinopalvelut 2023) on a national scale. The collaboration has also led to broader synergistic impact, particularly in exploring innovation opportunities offered by LALIGA. Taking solutions related to athlete performance, stadium and arena management, visitor experience and fan engagement to the global stage through national cooperation provides growth companies excellent opportunities for international networking, realizing export potential, and achieving growth under a strong country brand.

[Alt text: a group of smartly dressed people talking in front of a mansion.] — Image 1. Participants in a business delegation facilitated by Sport Finland as guests of the Finnish Ambassador to Spain. (Image: Taija Lappeteläinen)

Networking opportunities

Laura Andelin, who was part of the business delegation, describes the trip as a natural extension for ONIT Sport, which specializes in the implementation and development of psychological coaching for children and young people in sport, and for company´s interest in the Spanish market opportunities that emerged during 2023 through cooperation with LALIGA (Hhub 2023).

From her perspective, the delegation trip included several highlights, all of which were linked to both internal and external networking within the delegation’s composition. While she found it interesting to get to know the everyday life of major players in the sports sector and their relationship to cross-border RDI activities, she also found it important to tackle the issue of how to build and export expertise in cooperation to Europe. (Andelin 2024).

According to Laura Andelin, Finnish top-class experts can create together even more interesting packages to open international markets and put each other in the spotlight. This trip also resulted in new partnerships which can develop to cooperation in the coming years (Andelin 2024).

[Alt text: a lady having a presentation in front of group of listeners.] — Image 2. Laura Andelin from ONIT Sport pitching at the Sport Boost Accelerator. (Image: Taija Lappeteläinen)

According to Laura Andelin, joint travel arrangements provide multiple benefits to participants, as travel arrangements require a lot of resources for a growth company. Thus, the work of a team like Sport Finland in organizing travel arrangements frees companies to focus more carefully on their own pitches and learning from the experience.

Sport Finland will organize the second business delegation trip to Seville for the World Football Summit in September. Registration for the delegation is open for all Finnish companies interested in doing business in the global football market (Hhub 2024).

Authors

Alisa Heikkinen is the project manager of the Sport Finland network in the main implementing organization of the project, the City of Jyväskylä Business Development Services.

Ilkka Väänänen is a special researcher at LAB University of Applied Sciences and the chair of the steering group of the Sport Finland network.