Stageblog - Yannick Schimmel - November 2024

Moi! Mina olen Yannick, and in this blog I will take you along in my 6-month internship at the Embassy of the Netherlands in Helsinki. With this blog, I hope to provide some further insights into the work the Embassy does, as well as into the daily life in the Finnish capital. I study Cybersecurity Governance at the University of Leiden, and have a background in International Relations and European Studies. This blogpost is the third out of six and is about the month of November.

The Slush Magic

From the very beginning of my internship, Slush was one of the agenda items I looked forward to the most. This month the time had come, and it certainly did not disappoint. Slush is the world’s biggest start-up event, annually taking place in Helsinki. It brings together 13,000 investors and start-ups from all over the world, exploring business opportunities for the most promising innovations in the fields of climate tech, AI and MedTech, among many others.  

The most visible group: the orange-colored Dutch delegation! The group consisted of more than 200 Dutch participants and we welcomed them on Monday evening for a spectacular opening. The first days of the week were also filled with many interesting side-events throughout the city. At Slush itself, we had our own Netherlands Lounge to facilitate meetings and introduce the start-ups. Here, we also celebrated some new launches. It was a great pleasure to have so many conversations and try to create connections for the Dutch delegation being the ‘lounge manager’. Other highlights included the opening words by Finnish President Alexander Stubb and NVIDIA-founder Chris Malachowsky, and celebrating the amazing win by Dutch start-up Oasys Now in the Slush top-100. This was the perfect kick-off for the afterparty, starting with poffertjes, sjoelen and drinks in our NL Lounge, and continuing with performances at the venue’s main stages. Certainly days (and a night) to remember! 

However… there was more in November! 

If this was not enough, another big trade mission to Sweden and Finland took place early November. The mission contained two separate tracks; one on battery technology and one on hydrogen. I joined a visit to VTT (the technical research center of Finland) where we were shown some demo’s of the latest technologies. It was a very successful mission, and it was great to see so much enthusiasm about the opportunities for collaboration in these fields.

 Nordic Circular Summit 

Finally, there was also the Nordic Circular Summit. This is a conference on the circular economy in the Nordics and beyond, this year taking place in Helsinki. Anne Mieke van der Werf from Invest-NL presented on the main stage, and we also organized a webinar on the second day, showcasing the impressive work of the Circular Friesland Association. Helping to organize this webinar was a very educative experience, and it was great to see it coming together in the livestreamed session. 

In between, I conducted a couple of interesting interviews for my project on civil preparedness in Finland, speaking with the Ministry of the Interior, the Hybrid Centre of Excellence and the Finnish National Rescue Association. This has already given a good insight into how Finland organizes its rescue services, informs and prepares its citizens for crises, and maintains high standards for resilience in all aspects of life.

A final special occasion was to attend a naturalization ceremony in the Embassy, where we celebrated the official granting of Dutch citizenship to an applicant.    

Visitors and the first snow

The November weekends were filled with visits from family and friends, who were lucky to experience Finland at its best: as a white winter wonderland! The timing of the first snowfall could not have been better, as the Christmas season was opened last week by a parade through the city. It was really nice to show them around and re-visit some places that I had been to in the very first weeks, in a very different scenery, such as Suomenlinna island, Nuuksio national park and Tallinn (now with Christmas markets). Apart from the snowy days, the temperature has remained exceptionally warm (read: around 6 degrees) for November. Partly for this reason, I have been persuaded by colleagues to join a weekly “swim” in the Baltic Sea with a group of diplomats from various Embassies. Let’s say it is certainly a refreshing start of the day… 

Coming up in December

Coming up in December: a conference on the Nordic semiconductor sector, a film screening in honor of the International Human Rights Day, and exploring the Finnish Lakeland. More about that in the next blog.