Thiru Naidoo-Swettenham with Tommie Hamaluba of the Global Youth Alliance incubator in Botswana, pictured on Thiru’s left, and Professor Matti Hämäläinen from SoberIT, Aalto University.

Thiru Naidoo-Swettenham, the South African Programme Coordinator on the SAFIPA team, recently undertook a knowledge exchange trip to Finland with the intention of attending the infoDev-hosted 4th Global Forum 2011 conference; maximising networking opportunities; and learning from local Finnish innovators.  It was a jam-packed trip, which included meetings at Aalto University and Etnoteam, the institutions which have hosted the Knowledge Exchange Finland programme for post-graduate South African students.  Meetings with innovation actors in Espoo, Hameeenlinna and Tampere were organised in order to gain insight into the different mechanisms and organisations which are involved in ICT incubation and entrepreneurship in Finland.

The infoDev 4th Global Forum 2011

Thiru, accompanied by Kristiina Lähde, attended the full six days of the conference as a participant both in the pre-conference session entitled, Incubation Manager Training and in the forum itself.    There was no formal presentation by the SAFIPA team, however, the Nokia Mobile Maths project that the programme supports, was highlighted during the conference’s opening address made by the Minister of Foreign Trade and Development.

The main conference was  in Helsinki from the 30th May to the 3rd June with a chock-filled programme that included thirteen different activities, some of which were open to all participants, whilst others were closed meetings.  In total, there were 588 delegates from 85 countries.   On day two, the conference was divided into three separate tracks, which covered mobile, agribusiness and clean technology. Other sessions presented in the first and third days were Building industry Competitiveness through Effective Innovation; Innovation SMEs in the Global Market Space; Technology Financing and Opportunities; and Incubating Innovation through networks.

Having participants and presenters from international organisations in Africa, Asia, South and North America, the Middle East,  Europe and Australia, supported a dynamic platform for engagement and the sharing of experiences.  Thiru says of her discussions with different, people:  “I found a lot of similar experiences, challenges and initiatives that are being undertaken, and I gained a keen insight into some of the activities that South Africans could pursue.”

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