Slush side event on gender equality in the startup world organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, UN Women Finland, Inclusiv and FiBAN.
The rest of 2021 was so busy that some of the case studies were left waiting in a desk drawer. Fortunately, this early in the year, there is time to look back at what has been done!
The Slush side event “Investing and Gender Inclusion – What Can Investors Do?” was organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, UN Women Finland, Inclusiv and FiBAN in early December 2.12.2021.We were able to participate in this extremely important event live at Messukeskus Siivi.
We ensured that the terms of the cooperation agreement between our client and Slush were met and that the implementation was both smooth and well-planned. We built and dismantled the event on site with a strict hour-in, half-out tactic – fortunately, we are used to tight schedules! The carefully honed plan also ensured that there were no unpleasant surprises and the planned budget and schedule were adhered to until the end.
The event was planned on the basis of raising an important issue in an interesting way, taking into account the timeframe given. In addition, our client wanted to offer participants time for networking and discussion. As the event took place at lunchtime, we wanted to use this to attract participants. Although the topic was important, Slush had many interesting side events going on at the same time. In addition to the impressive content, the lunch was a great introduction! Only vegetarian food was deliberately chosen, with a preference for home-grown root vegetables.
Theme and content of the event
The theme of the event was equality in the startup sector and the event featured a number of startup entrepreneurs and investors, including keynote speaker Deepali Nangia and panelists Dora Palfi, Andreas Helbig, Daisy Onubogu and Milja Laakso. For us at To Do, it is important to act in line with our values and with people who share our values. With gender equality being one of our values, it was especially great to be able to run an event that highlighted the topic from a startup perspective. The event was also part of the Generation Equality campaign, which promotes equality in areas where progress has been slow internationally.
Taking account of constraints
The event was carried out in accordance with the restrictive measures in force at the time. Our work in recent years has involved a lot of monitoring, anticipating, preparing, responding and adapting through different channels and authorities. The final measures to be used were partly decided for us by the Slush organisation and therefore the interest rate passes were also available at the event. Given our expertise, we strongly suspected that the situation would still affect the participation rate. Normally, the so-called “no shows” of events, i.e. people who register but do not show up, account for about 10% – with the interest rate, we have seen an increase. Although the topic was interesting and lunch was provided, we still decided to use Slush as a booster for the event and allowed “walk in” visitors at the door of our event from the actual Slush side. There were plenty of interested people and we heard that the event was the most interesting in terms of content for many when looking at what Slush had to offer!
To spread the message as widely as possible, a recording of the event was also made, which can be viewed on the UN Women Finland Youtube channel here.
We look forward to seeing what spring brings!