Creativity x Tech x City is a multidisciplinary business event series that combines creativity, technology, and business. It showcases the innovation potential of creative expertise as part of a broader research, development, and innovation (RDI) ecosystem.
The events bring together companies, cities, startups, higher education institutions, and researchers at the intersection of creativity, technology, and urban development.
The aim is to accelerate business-driven, scalable solutions and sustainable growth.
For companies and cities, the event series provides a platform to launch real-world challenges and seek new, impactful solutions related to topics such as:
The solutions are intended to directly support business development, build competitive advantage, and open new markets.
A Happiness Museum is being planned in central Helsinki, with the goal of answering the question: Why is Finland the happiest country in the world? The museum experience will be structured around three narrative paths—for children, knowledge seekers, and experience-driven visitors—combining both digital and traditional methods to present factors influencing happiness across different stages of life.
Johannes Lassila explains that the aim is to create ways to design immersive experiences that illustrate the significance of work-life balance for happiness while remaining understandable across multiple languages.
Lassila is particularly interested in companies’ perspectives on technological and creative solutions that could be utilized in the museum. The discussion has introduced possibilities such as virtual reality, gamification, and multisensory installations to enhance the experience for a multicultural and multilingual audience.
The company Making Movies has developed a prototype for AI-assisted workflows in the film industry.
The objective is to find multidisciplinary partners to expand and further develop the concept.
Current challenges include managing production data such as:
In workshops, participants explore:
YLE is exploring how live performances in the metaverse can reshape youth culture and connect content creators, amateur performers, and audiences in new ways. The challenge invited innovative ideas and solutions that enable this immersive experience.
Virtual worlds such as Roblox have become increasingly popular among younger audiences, and the metaverse offers a unique opportunity to foster creativity and a sense of community. Live performances – real-time, interactive events – represent an exciting new frontier in the digital space. Companies were invited to help envision how this idea could be further developed collaboratively.
YLE challenged developers to create an adaptive podcasting solution. The goal is to develop an application where podcast content automatically adjusts based on sensor data from the user’s smartphone.
“Working in the workshop was extremely interesting, and we had great discussions. The world of podcasts is fascinating, and it’s wonderful that this theme is being developed to become more user-friendly. It’s great that YLE wants to invest in podcasting by improving the listening experience so that everyone can find content that suits them, for example during their daily commute. The challenge addresses a real need: from a wide selection, it becomes easier to find content that matches one’s preferences and mood,” says a workshop participant.
In a challenge presented by the City of Helsinki, participants were asked to develop creative, community-driven, and multifunctional concepts for an old red-brick daycare building in Pitäjänmäki. The building, constructed in 1925, is envisioned as a place where creativity, entrepreneurship, and everyday encounters enrich the entire neighborhood.
Could the space function as a café, workspace, or event venue? The goal of the challenge is to activate the building and integrate it meaningfully into the local community.
The building will become available for new users in June. The three-story, accessible, and well-maintained property offers approximately 500 m² of space, including a kitchen, a hall, and multiple rooms. The city is looking for bold visions and actors who see opportunity in an empty space and are willing to respond with radical creativity.
Helsinki City Marketing is seeking a spatial event concept for the city center, where shop windows and vacant retail spaces form a walkable experiential route. Using new technologies, engaging content open to all city residents would be created in these spaces.
The goal is to revitalize the city center and increase visitor flows throughout different seasons. The challenge looks for a concept that is cost-effective, scalable, and replicable. Implementation is based on collaboration with both operating businesses and possibly owners of vacant spaces.
The technical execution of individual installations can be repeated from one event to another, but the content is expected to change according to seasons and themes.
Imagine a route through the city streets where each window reveals something unexpected: light, sound, or movement. One window might react to the viewer’s motion, another might transport them into a virtual world. Some windows may bring history or the future to life.
Together, these elements form an experience that encourages visitors to explore every stop. It could become, for example, a route, a game, or a puzzle that rewards completion. The overall experience will be approachable and user-friendly, requiring no advanced technical skills. The aim is to attract a broad audience, including families and passersby.
The “Movement that Rewards” project is presented by the Finnish technology company Resolud. The challenge invites participants to design location-based, app-driven concepts that encourage people to move, play, and explore.
The goal is to create engaging content for the app, where light gamification, storytelling, or digital reward mechanisms motivate users to stay active. Resolud’s existing technology platform already supports map-based navigation, task completion, and reward activation.
For example:
Resolud seeks to explore how technology, creativity, and urban space can combine into experiences where even everyday movement becomes play.
The fourth challenge is presented by the Finnish company Interract. It invites participants to develop a digital solution that improves collaboration between professionals in the early stages of urban planning.
The aim is to create a creative digital solution that enables meaningful cooperation among different stakeholders in city planning.
According to Interract, urban environments are currently shaped by many different professionals, but rarely in truly collaborative ways. Engineers often lead the process, while designers’ understanding of everyday experiences, usability, and holistic thinking is underutilized.
This challenge seeks to change that. The goal is to develop a solution that enables genuine dialogue and collaboration between designers, engineers, and planners from the very beginning of the process—leading to smoother interaction and better, more human-centered solutions.
The Creativity x Tech x City event series is part of the Digital Creative Industries & Beyond project, implemented by the City of Helsinki, Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, and Aalto University. The event series is part of the City of Helsinki’s project portfolio and is co-funded by the European Union.
Would you like to take part in implementing the challenges? Do you have an idea you’d like to bring to life? Want to learn more about the concept or a specific challenge?
You can contact the City of Helsinki project team.
Taina Seitsara
Project Manager
Business Helsinki
taina.seitsara@hel.fi
Sinna Marjamaa
Project Specialist
Business Helsinki
sinna.marjamaa@hel.fi
