Nearly 150 guests gathered at A Grid on the Aalto University campus for the innovative A Grid Open event day.
This year’s first A Grid Open was held on Wednesday 6th of March. Idea of the event is to get to know the A Grid startup companies, ecosystem doers and other operators. The event was organised in cooperation with A Grid and Aalto Startup Center’s Demo Day event. The spirit of the event was full of enthusiastic minds and new innovations!
Networking was the most important part of the day
A tasty vegetarian lunch was served at the networking lunch and during interesting discussions, skilled quartet from The Polytech Orchestra played classical music, creating cozy atmosphere for the event. A Grid’s redecorated lobby area works excellently even for larger networking events.
A Grid Open continued after a networking lunch and coffee in the Mordor event space, where startup entrepreneurs had an open mic. It was enlightening to hear the short presentations of startups from several A Grid and Aalto Startup Center’s companies. There are many types of businesses operating in the building, you can get to know A Grid’s startups more here >>>. In addition to the short presentations, some of the companies had theirs stands in the lobby where you could get to know them better.
Frank Martela talked about the future of working life
Keynote speaker Frank Martela filled the entire Mordor event space with an interesting speech about the future of working life and what does the transformation of work require from individuals and organizations.
Frank Martela is a PhD, philosopher and researcher in psychology, who is specialized in meaningfulness, human motivation and how organizations and institutions can unleash human potential. He aims to investigate the fundamentals of happiness, meaningfulness, human basic needs, and good life to deliver insights that can help each of us to live a slightly better and more self-chosen life.
At A Grid Open Frank talked about having a work that feels meaningful is increasingly important topic for employee wellbeing as well as the ability of the employers to attract top talent to their companies and keep them motivated and committed. He explained what meaningful work is and how to offer key pathways through which you can increase the meaningfulness of your own work or enhance the meaningfulness of your employees. For example, in Nordic minimalistic leaderships there is according to Frank four key points: establish a clear shared vision, teach employees to think like a CEO, replace control with trust — especially when employees make the “wrong” choice and balance freedom with clear boundaries. You can read more about this topic on Frank’s column in Harward Business Review(12/2023) here >>>.
Thank you to all participants of A Grid Open and the next A Grid Open event will be held in autumn 2024.
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More information about the event organizers:
A GRID
A Grid is enabling the growth of startups by offering not only good facilities on the Aalto University campus but also the opportunity to network with inspiring community. Check A Grid’s office and event facilities here >>
AALTO STARTUP CENTER
Aalto Startup Center is a hybrid accelerator offering its own incubator and accelerator services, as well as several partnership programs. Its focus is on sustainable research-based and innovative deep-tech startups. Aalto Startup Center also participates in and leading international partnership incubator and accelerator programs such as Urban Tech Helsinki, EIT Urban Mobility, and ESA BIC Finland. Check more about Aalto Startup Center here >>