Together towards an attractive future

Collaboration is the foundation of everything when it comes to regional development, growth, vitality, and competitiveness. By working together, we can strengthen the region’s attraction and retention power and improve its ability to attract new talent and stakeholders.

The availability of skilled labor has been identified as a critical factor for the growth of both North Savo and its businesses. In the future, attracting international talent to the workforce will be essential for keeping the region vibrant and competitive.

One example of successful collaboration is events. Why do it alone when it can be done better and more effectively together?

Event collaboration creates impact

Talent First has taken the regional talent story of North Savo to the world in collaboration with its partners, bringing various stakeholders together to pursue a common goal.

The Talent First – talent attraction project – organizes events in cooperation with various organizations, trusting that the most impactful results come from working together. Event collaboration has brought North Savo’s talent appeal to the forefront both domestically and internationally: in seminars, trade fairs, and community-based projects. These shared events have increased the region’s visibility, created new connections, and demonstrated that collaboration is the most effective way to strengthen the region’s attractiveness and competitiveness.

The competition for talent is fierce

In joint events, Talent First and other organizations play their distinct, natural roles. According to Samuli Miettinen, business expert at the Economic Development Centre of Eastern Finland (previously the North Savo ELY Centre), everyone speaks about the same theme, but with slightly different approaches.

– One goal is to attract top talent to the region and ensure that the talent already here stays, Miettinen says.

The North Savo ELY Centre and the Talent First project collaborated on the popular seminar “International talent and competitiveness in North Savo,” held in October 2025 in Kuopio. Other partners in the event included Talent Hub Eastern Finland, Business Finland, Work In Finland, and the Future labour markets ESR+ coordination project.

– Talent First has worked actively to ensure visibility for the region’s businesses at international events. This is extremely important because the competition for talent is tough, and it will only get fiercer in the future, Miettinen adds.

Another significant seminar was held the previous year, in 2024, in collaboration with the North Savo Regional Council’s “Integration of foresight information in North Savo” project. The “Region’s attractiveness – Talent and the makers of the future” seminar received praise for its diverse program and interesting new research findings.

Better results through collaboration

Finnish organizations have strengthened their cooperation at international recruitment fairs as well. The Talent First project has been a key partner in, for example, the EURES network, through which the fair collaboration was initiated.

– The first joint fair was the Emigration Expo in the Netherlands in the spring of 2024. Later, similar fairs have been held in Hungary and Portugal, says Ilona Wakonen, Development Expert at Work in Finland’s KEHA Centre.

According to Wakonen, the core of the collaboration is to highlight the employment opportunities for international talent and the sectors in Finland that need workers. The key target group for the fairs is job seekers who are ready to relocate to Finland.

– The collaboration with Talent First was excellent. They helped with marketing, communication, and provided regional expertise, adding value to the fair. This allowed us to present Finland in a more comprehensive way. Additionally, Talent First provided us with great development ideas for future fairs.

Collaboration has been seen as mutually successful and rewarding – together, it’s possible to achieve more and in a more diverse way than alone. The evolving collaboration aims to make it possible for employers to participate in the fairs in an even more direct way, possibly presenting concrete job opportunities as well.

The pilot project SanaSkaba combined language skills and community

One example of a community-based project is the Finnish language speaking competition, SanaSkaba, which was held in Kuopio in the fall of 2025. In this event, international talent had the opportunity to practice public speaking in Finnish in an authentic setting. The competition was originally conceived by Vimbiso Kombora and executed by Ezekiel Kuhoga and Maira Asif in cooperation with the Talent First project. Talent First was the main partner of the project and participated in organizing and judging the competition.

SanaSkaba showed that international talent can take on the role of event planners and leaders when given the opportunity. Feedback from the competition was overwhelmingly positive – many hoped the competition would continue annually and expand to a national level.

– When talents from different backgrounds are given space and support, new ideas and lasting impact emerge, says Kuhoga.

Collaboration that attracts talent and creates sustainable growth

When it comes to genuine collaboration, it involves the merging of interests and goals from different stakeholders. It is long-term, strategic work where businesses and organizations combine their resources and expertise to achieve shared objectives. A functional collaboration network creates attractiveness for the region – not only for businesses but also for talent.

Collaboration with clear goals and a shared vision provides a strong foundation for sustainable growth in the region.

– It’s important to remember that attraction and retention go hand in hand, and work must be done on both fronts, says Reetta Airaksinen, Project Manager of the Talent First project.

Vision: A Talent-driven North Savo

The goal of the Talent First project is to create a collaboration model that is open to all businesses and organizations in the region wishing to be involved in enhancing the region’s attraction and retention power, as well as finding solutions for attracting and integrating international talent. The project carries out activities in cooperation with partners and other regional collaborators.

The upcoming collaboration model, the so-called multi-actor network, will delve deeper into the development of regional cooperation. The focus will be on knowledge sharing, developing the region’s retention power, as well as influence and attractiveness.

– This will involve necessary situational assessments, training, creating career and integration paths, as well as communication efforts and events, says Airaksinen.

A strong community spirit attracts not only tourists but also businesses and industry experts – all while building a vibrant growth story for the entire region.

How does collaboration with a vision of a Talent-driven North Savo sound?

Text: Minna Akiola, Reetta Airaksinen

Photos: Wille Markkanen, Tiina Kuha, Ezekiel Kuhoga, Ilona Walonen/Work in Finland

Read the Kuopio by Nature digital magazine (ISSUU)

This article is produced by Talent First (Talent attraction model of North Savo – impact through collaboration). The project is co-financed by the European Union, with funding from the South Savo ELY Centre (ESR+) and 12 North Savo project partners (1.9.2023–30.6.2026).