IBC has a close collaboration with the Embassy of Ireland in Helsinki. We are happy to welcome the new Ambassador of Ireland, Mr Paul Sherlock and his family to Finland. We have already met him in few occasions and can clearly see that our collaboration will flourish also in the future. 

Also the new Deputy Head of Mission, Ms Lauren McLaughlin has started in the Embassy. We are looking forward to work with Lauren to increase the interest and understanding of Ireland and Finland within business world. 

We had a great pleasure to hear Senior Economist Harri Pönkä from the Bank of Finland. He gave us very broad understanding on the differencies of two quite similar size economies Ireland and Finland. However, two countries differ quite a lot in demography as well as in GDP. This topic is particularly interesting now that Ireland is one of the fastest growing economies within EU while Finland is suffering of zero growth. 

Ireland clearly benefits on close trans-Atlantic relations as well as the language and low corporate tax but there is much more in this. Their government has taken some rather drastic steps to tackle the financial crisis few years ago. They also clearly identified few industries of future potential - call and data centers of big ICT companies as well as the pharmaceutical industry. These industries has been supported and they have brought lot of companies and talented personnel into the country. At the same time Finland has tried to support many different industries and thus the support has probably split into too small "rivers". Finland is highly dependent on innovation and exports and would need more skills and investments on this. 

More details can be found in Harri Pönkä's presentation by request to tarjah.uitti@gmail.com

Ireland - the green island, is a great place to visit. Check what there is to see and know about Ireland.  https://www.nordicvisitor.com/blog/cool-facts-ireland-known-for/

Irish Business Club's Annual General Meeting took place on Thursday the 7th of March 2024.

The meeting elected nine members of Board;  Kevin Deegan, John Horkan, Heikki Mairinoja, Matti Räty, Norma Salmivuori, Tarja Uitti and Erkki Yrjölä from previous board and two new members Kirsi Swanljung von Wehrt and Ari Lahti. Tarja Uitti was elected as a Chairman and Erkki Yrjölä as Deputy Chairman for calendar year 2024. 

The seminar on Diversity and Inclusive work practices was held at Hotel U14 on January 24th. The event was organized in collaboration with Embassy of Ireland in Helsinki and Enterprise Ireland Nordics. 

We had a great group of panelists and we wish to thank Sandra Healy, Siobhán McKenna, Mikko Räsänen, Elin Eklöf and John Nylund for their valuable insights on preparing for the workforce of today and tomorrow.  There was also very active audience who presented numerous questions highlighting the importance of this topic. 

IBC will continue to support the diversity and adaptation in work places by offering networking and discussion opportunities to our members. 

Key takeaways summarized well by Embassy:

- Workplace expectations are changing, employees increasingly choose to work for employers whose values better match their own.

- Ensuring diversity means hiring best talent, their skillsets and their potential 

- Migration has always happened and it will increase due to climate change - smart businesses will be those who are proactive in capturing the opportunities.

- Ireland and Finland can share experiences as countries with long histories of outward migration, but comparatively recent experiences of inward migration. 

The group of Irish start-ups and scaling tech companies will be present in the coming SLUSH which takes place November 30th - December 1st.

"Slush is the focal point in the Northern European tech calendar, it is the place start up and scaling technology companies meet with toptier international corporates, influencers, investors and media. The two-day event brings together the leading tech scene in wintery Scandinavia, amidst one of the most dynamic tech ecosystems in the world."

Enterprise Ireland 

Irish Business Club has bought in 1990 a facsimile copy of Book of Kells  and donated it to National Library in Helsinki. Usually this great historical book is seen only at the Library of Trinity College in Dublin in the glass box and you cannot touch the book. 

The physical book was show cased recently in the connection of the opening of the exhibition "Ireland and the Birth of Europe" . The book is not available for public every day but can be pre-ordered to be seen by anyone. It has been of great benefit for the researchers of history of Europe. 

On January 12th a seminar on Circular Economy was organized at U14 Hotel together with the Embassy of Ireland. The occasion was honored by Minister of State of Ireland with responsibility for the Circular Economy, Mr Ossian Smyth T.D. The panel consisted on four speakers; Kari Herlevi, Project Director at Sitra, Enni Karikoski, Founder and CEO of Niimaar, Dr Sarah Miller, Chief Executive of The Rediscovery Centre Dublin and Mari Saario, Director of Sustainability at Sulapac. The discussion was moderated by Ken Dooley, Professor of Practice from Aalto University.

 On June 2nd the Irish Government launched the first ever Nordic Strategy which covers different areas of focus for coming years. The virtual launch was presented by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Ireland, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden together with Icelandic Permanent State Secretary. This was followed a panel discussion on the economic aspects of the Nordic Strategy. Topic was discussed by Hannah Fraser, Enterprise Ireland, Kevin O Donovan from Statkraft and Alan O'Kelly from Premium Power.

At the end of the summer we had the great pleasure to welcome the new Ambassador of Ireland, H.E. Mrs Ruth Parkin to Helsinki. The Irish Business Club is now invited to meet with the Ambassador via a virtual breakfast meeting on Tuesday 1st of December. Meeting details have been shared via email to all members.