” W H E N A C I T Y WA N T S TO AT T R AC T TA L E N T, S M O OT H DA I LY L I V I N G I S A M A J O R P L U S ” Why should cities attract talents? “Major, world-changing innovation arises in places where people from different fields collide”, says project manager and urban influencer Mikko Särelä. In attracting talent, the aim is to increase networks of this type.
is movement and growth, a problem arises – then a solution. “Cities have problems, but also skilled people able to solve them.” He adds that today no one thinks like back in the 90s: that the Internet would make cities irrelevant. Even a game company wants its CEO to live in Finland despite the fact that contacts could be kept via conference calls. In his free time, Särelä is a proactive urban influencer. He is the founder of the popular Lisää kaupunkia Helsinkiin (Engl. transl. More city into Helsinki) Facebook group, an active discussion forum on urban planning with more than 17,000 members. With Särelä leading the way, many of the particpants know the future plans for Helsinki like the back of their hand. According to Särelä, Helsinki has ”an immediate deficit of 15,00 coders”. How would he attract talent to the city? ”As much of a cliché as it sounds, safety is vital. That’s something we don’t know how to market in Helsinki, as it’s taken for granted.”
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he last 10,000 years have been a period of urbanization”, says D. Sc. (Tech.) Mikko Särelä, project manager at Aalto University. He used to work for Aalto Living+ platform, which focuses on human-centered living environments and urban development as well as the digital revolution and how it affects cities. Särelä previously researched online networks. Aalto Living+ is Aalto University’s multidisciplinary collaboration platform, which aims to make use of urban research in people’s daily lives. Särelä sees cities as the first platform in the history of the world that brings together different types of producers and consumers. “And why do platforms exist? Because they bring network advantages.” These network advantages are enhanced by the increasingly important role of cities. In this sense, it is logical that cities should attract talent. “Major world-changing innovation arises in places where people from different disciplines collide. Know ledge is something you can write in a book and teach on the other side of the world, but most information is tacit and only transmitted through genuinely knowing someone and spending time with them”, explains Särelä. “Cities bring together people from a wide range of fields, which means they create special advantage – and attract people who want to make use of networks.” In attracting talent, the aim is to increase networks of this type. Särelä points out that networks also bring disadvantages, such as rising house prices, more traffic, less green areas and noise. But cities are self-repairing: there
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esearcher Särelä reminds that when terrorist attacks happen in other parts of Europe, Finland and Helsinki are often mentioned as safe parts of the world, along the lines of: “Is a move to Finland what it takes to live safely?” It is interesting that Nordic cities without separate expat areas or fenced-off living enclaves for the rich as such score top marks in city rankings. In Helsinki, foreigners eagerly mention the fact that their children can go to school themselves by bike, tram or metro. Safety is a value in itself, but it also allows children to learn to become independent, as they get to take responsibility for themselves from a young age. What other perks are there in Helsinki besides safety? ”Residents take initiative, and bureaucracy is topclass. And we are not the worst competitors in the world, which means the workplace isn’t about competing like mad and stabbing each other in the back.”
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