Developing an Internationalization Event Concept for Team Finland

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis was to develop and define an event concept for Team Finland’s internationalization services for Finnish companies. The thesis was executed as an assignment for the Embassy of Finland Singapore. The main goal was to provide the Embassy with a concrete written and visual representation of the networking event concept, including planning, pitching and discussions as individual elements. Team Finland Singapore has created and used the event concept for few years, but it was defined and developed in this work.

The objectives of the event concept are to provide service and aid to Finnish companies in their internationalization process. This further creates a positive effect on Finland’s international trade, foreign direct investments and tourism in Finland. The reported issues in internationalization of Finnish companies indicate that the most help was needed in marketing, communications and networking related issues. The theoretical background focused on internationalization, marketing, communication and business networking, and separately event planning and management based on the reasons for the initial creation of the event concept and how it serves Finnish companies.

Theories on event concepts, planning and management, were used to define the event planning and the individual elements. Participation in two events, co-hosted by KONE, Smart Buildings and Infrastructure reception on April 1st, 2019 and Team Finland ASEAN + Australia + India Roadshow on August 16th, 2019, defined and evaluated the use of the event concept. The empirical part of the thesis was based on studying literature sources, discussions and cooperation with the employer and participating in the two events.

In conclusion, the event concept and its parts can now be used separately without additional information, to plan and organise a networking event. Planning, pitching and discussions were identified as the most important elements of the event concept, and as a result of this work are now fully defined and developed. These are the most necessary elements in utilising the event concept and are here in a format that can be easily applied to many events. Therefore, the thesis now enables the use of the event concept for planning future events by Team Finland Singapore, and additionally the event concept document can be introduced and distributed for use of the Embassy of Finland Singapore’s connections and partners.