Two entrepreneurs thoughts of Ülemiste Smart City

Abstract

Over 40 students, teachers and entrepreneurs from six different countries visited Ülemiste Smart City (ÜSC) in mid January for three days. ÜSC is the largest Smart City in the Baltics and the biggest privately owned business campus in the Northern Europe. The study tour was part of the project, which aims to support creation of a new network through knowledge transfer and innovation in multicultural environment. This is realised by the close cooperation between educational institutions, enterprises and sector organisations from Norway, Island, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. The study tour was the first out of total of three and was focusing to study and create new services for the Ülemiste Smart City. The aim of the Study Tour 1, named as “Creative Entrepreneurship” - was to organize creative entrepreneurial activities. Through the meetings, seminars and lectures experiences/ good practices and knowledge for the development of entrepreneurial mindset and knowledge between the International partners and experts were shared. In addition, new service proposals were created by interviews performed by students to companies and entrepreneurs, and were presented at the end of the study tour to the companies and authorities of the ÜSC. This article collects the interview results of two entrepreneurs, Laura Sildmäe and Heili Politanov, as part of the project results. The focus of this article is on the relationship between ÜSC and the companies.