Matka merelle: Kotkan vesibussiristeilyt

Langinkosken Keisarillisen kalastusmajan ja Katariinan Meripuiston välillä alkoi kesällä 2023 risteilyliiketoiminta. Tämä uusi palvelu toi tullessaan innostusta ja eloa alueelle, ja sen takana oli kotkalainen yrittäjä Petri Luotio, NaviKotka. Hänen puolisonsa puolestaan otti vastuulleen Keisarillisen kalastusmajan kesäkahvilan, mikä oli keskeinen osa tätä laajempaa kokonaisuutta.

Luotion mukaan, vesibussireitti suunniteltiin palvelemaan sekä paikallisia asukkaita että matkailijoita. Monelle sisämaan matkaajalle 20 minuutin risteily riittää ihan hyvin. ja siinä pääsee vähän nuuskimaan meri-ilmaa, eikä reissussa mene koko päivää, hän toteaa.

Asiakkaat voivat saapua omalla autollaan Katariinan Meripuistoon ja siirtyä sieltä vesibussilla Langinkoskelle, jossa he voivat tutustua alueeseen ennen paluutaan. Vastaavasti bussikuljetus toimi sujuvana vaihtoehtona niille, jotka halusivat saapua Langinkoskelle ja risteillä Meripuistoon. Tämä joustava liikenneyhteys teki meren läheisyydestä helposti saavutettavan kaikille. Kilpailutilanne alalla on Luotion mukaan terve ja reilu, mutta hän haluaa erottua tarjoamalla yksinkertaista ja laadukasta palvelua. Hänen tavoitteenaan on aina huomioida asiakkaiden tarpeet yksilöllisesti.

Kotkan vesibussiristeilyjen ytimessä on Tuula-laiva, Suomen vanhin liikenteessä oleva puinen vesibussi. Alun perin Höytiäisellä seilannut Tuula herätti aluksi epäilyksiä ulkonäöllään, mutta Luotio näki siinä kuitenkin ainutlaatuisen mahdollisuuden. Hän remontoi Tuulan ja teki siitä keskeisen osan vesibussikokemusta. Tuula ei vain ollut suosittu risteilyvieraiden keskuudessa, Tuula on myös ainut puinen vesibussi, joka on hyväksytty Suomen Perinnelaivaluetteloon.

Kotkan vesibussiristeilyt eivät olleet vain matka merelle, vaan ne ovat tarina yrittäjän rohkeudesta, yhteistyöstä ja omistautumisesta tarjota asiakkaille unohtumattomia kokemuksia merellisestä Kotkasta. Ensimmäinen kesä osoitti konseptin menestyksen. Liikevaihto kaksinkertaistui, ja vesibussiristeilyjen suosio oli valtava. Toimintaa laajennettiin ympärivuotiseksi, mikä kertoo sen vakiintumisesta osaksi paikallista matkailutarjontaa. Luotio korosti yhteistyön merkitystä Cursor Oy:n  Vip&Ko-hankkeen kanssa, joka oli tarjonnut hyvää tukea ja apua yrittäjälle.

Tulevaisuus näyttää valoisalta, ja Luotio kannustaa muitakin yrittäjiä olemaan rohkeita ja uskaliaita omalla alallaan. Laajentumissuunnitelmia on jo ilmassa, ja uusia liiketoiminta-alueita on mietitty jo kesään 2024.

Saaristomatkailu kukoistaa: Yhteistyön voima

Yhteistyön avulla olemme onnistuneet luomaan uusia saaristotuotteita, jotka palvelevat niin yksittäisiä matkailijoita kuin ryhmiäkin, kertoo Cursor Oy:n projektipäällikkö Mats Selin. Hankkeen keskeinen opetus oli se, miten valtava osaaminen ja kokemus alueen saaristoyrittäjillä on. Heidän innostuksensa ja motivaationsa kehittämistyötä kohtaan olivat inspiraatiota, ja oli ilo tukea ja kannustaa heitä.

Lisätietoja Vip&Ko -hankeesta.

CBC Programmes are highlighting the results and impact of the projects together!

SEFR CBC Programme together with Kolarctic CBC and Karelia CBC are highlighting the results and impact of the programmes in social media and programmes webpages. The joint campaign started at the beginning of March and will continue for a few more weeks. You are welcome to join us!

During the first week we have highlighting results about the actions developing professional skills,  New generations, new skills.

 

 

 

 

Ex-post evaluation of the programme launched

The Regional Council of South Karelia, as the Managing Authority for the South-East Finland-Russia CBC 2014-2020 Programme, has commissioned an external ex-post evaluation of the programme from TK-Eval. TK-Eval will conduct a surveys as part of the evaluation for projects funded by the programme as well as for the stakeholders during winter-spring 2024. A primary focus of the evaluation is to closely assess the implementation of the program and the results and effects of the project.

In February 2024, questionnaires and interviews started with project beneficiaries. The analysis of the collection day will be done by the end of April, and the final evaluation is expected to be completed and published before the summer 2024.

 

Hiitolanjoki-Salmon river for locals and travelers of all times

The South Karelia Foundation for Recreation Areas, which owns the rapids of river Hiitolanjoki, and the municipality of Rautjärvi were happy to announced that the last rapid with its surroundings is now completed and open to the public. More than two decades of hard work have now come to an end, and we can finally enjoy the fruits of our labor.

Hiitolanjoki-Salmon river for locals and travelers of all times aim was to developing new attractive tourism destinations by restoring an impressive natural rapid with living stock of endengered Ladoga Salmon. Creating nature trails and historical water trail as well as design for an industry historical place. The old Kangaskoski hydropower plant owned by Ekvas was taken out of use during the project as the first hydro power plant on the Finnish side of the Hiitolanjoki River. A museum was planned for hydro power plant, so that the culturally and industrially historically valuable building got a new life and the tourism companies in the area can add content to their tourism products. Although the work at river Hiitolanjoki has been started from the beginning of nature conservation and it has always been a primary value, other perspectives are also needed in order to implement similar projects. In Hiitolanjoki it has meant investing in recreational use of the area along with nature conservation. New camping infrastructure has been built around each rapid, such as accessible walkways, accessible fire places and accessible outdoor toilets. An accessible bird tower was also built at Lahnasenkoski.

This enables the area to be used by people of all ages and fitness levels. A virtual museum Kangaskoski Mobile was created for Kangaskoski, which allows you to get to know the wood grinder that has already disappeared. A museumization plan has also been made for the Kangaskoski power plant, but additional funding must still be sought for its implementation. The further use of the Lahnasenkoski and Ritakoski hydropower plants has not to be planned yet, but the sites have already attracted a lot of interest from both students and entrepreneurs. By investing in recreation areas, we wanted to create more conditions for current and new entrepreneurs working in tourism. The river warriors of the area welcome everyone to get to know the completely free-flowing Hiitolanjoki in the summer season of 2024!

Photos:Hanna Ollikainen, Etelä-Karjalan virkistysaluesäätiö

Video: Removal of the Hiitolanjoki Ritakoski dam 2023

 

 

 

Cross-Border Safety; accident prevention and risk management

Cross-border safety, accident prevention and management CB-SAFE -project main objectives were to enhance the skills, safety knowledge, and safety attitudes of individuals crossing the border, produce safety information material, create a virtual learning platform for rescue services, and deepen the cooperation between the Finnish authorities in the border area.

One goal was also to create a virtual training platform for rescue services. The platform was named VR-HYPO (virtual training environment for operational decision-making of rescue services). The platform simulates risk and accident situations in the Saimaa canal and its surroundings. The virtual training environment is based on accident scripts, where decision-making related to risk and accident situations and the use of resources can be practiced with the help of gamification. The goal was to modernize the performance management of the rescue departments and pilot the functionality of the virtual training environment.

The implementation of the VR game environment was done with different softwares enabled a multi-game environment where rescue personnel working at different fire stations can participate in a training simulation using a VR-compatible computer and VR glasses. It was especially important to make the rescue personnel’s actions correspond to the real situation. The virtual platform is used to develop the performance and competence of rescue authorities. From the point of view of society, the results can be seen in the improvement of risk management and safety in the environments of emergency services. The virtual platform enables training in complex situations, for example, the Saimaa canal, where training opportunities are otherwise limited, and the combined result of this is enhanced service response in demanding accident situations. A similar digital learning platform has not been created before. The possibilities for the further development of the virtual learning platform in the rescue industry are limitless.

With the help of the project, a new ROV diving drone was acquired, which helps divers in their work and improves work safety. The ROV also serves as a tool in accidents and damage situations in the aquatic environment.

Based on the work carried out in the project, the proposal was that the Ministry of the Interior would be the body coordinating the border area cooperation and the rescue services would take responsibility for practical cooperation, for example by dividing the workload – each rescue service would be responsible in turn for the operation of the network in, for example, two-year cycles. The rescue agencies involved in the operation would have a unified situational picture and information about, for example, upcoming exercises in border area cooperation, as well as a clear situational picture of the situation in the border area in general. Authorities operating in the border area would be invited to the cooperation network, and already existing network structures such as EKTURVAA and Kymen Turvaa can be used in it.

CB-SAFE

Starttisatama Business Acceleration Services is as a concrete TWIN CAMPUS outcome

In the beginning of the project, Growth Factory facility, maintained by Cursor Oy, was planned to serve as a concrete facility for startups, business incubation, collaboration of students and businesses etc. But since the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, activities of Growth Factory were put on hold. In the fall 2021 when the pandemic seemed to be calming down Cursor started thinking and brainstorming how to reconcept the facility and services to better fit into “new normal” after Covid-19 pandemic. It was obvious that due to profound behavioral changes caused by the pandemic the concept of Growth Factory needed to be rebuilt.

Rebuilding of new concept and services of Growth Factory proceeded during fall and winter 2021 as a joint undertaking inside Cursor. The process of developing Growth Factory into Starttisatama included many steps and collaboration of several persons working in Cursor. Twin Campus project supplied and delivered primary support for project coordination and acquisitions. Other assistance consisted of IT procurement, administration, communication, and cooperation with business advisory services.

The ultimate goal was to plan and establish a reasonably priced business acceleration service package customized to 10 to 12 startup entrepreneurs with passion to grow, cooperate, and create new jobs, providing entrepreneurs with open plan desk, fully equipped negotiation room, network of established local companies and growth enhancing advisory services by Cursor and its partners, serving incipient and recently begun entrepreneurs from Hamina, Kotka, Loviisa, Miehikkälä, Pyhtää, and Virolahti, facilitating international and cross-border communication and collaboration and run by Cursor Business Advisory Services.

The development process proceeded, and different steps were implemented until May 2022. Planning, procurement, and acquisitions for a modern negotiation/ meeting room were implemented during winter-spring 2022. Part of the negotiation/ meeting room equipment and appliances were financed by Twin Campus project (large on-the-wall display and presentation technology including presentation system, camera, microphone, and speaker). Housewarming party/ official launching of Starttisatama Business Acceleration Services was arranged on 6th June 2022.

The Twin Campus project contributed also to environmental sustainability in different indirect ways. As for e.g., acquisitions (not financed by Twin Campus project) like shared lounge furniture (recycled from Cursor´s premises), phone booth (recycled) and negotiation room furniture (bought as recycled) as well as cafeteria´s coffee tableware (no disposable cups but ceramic ones) are of excellent examples of small actions and choices with which to boost sustainability and green office/ campus. Audiovisual appliances for remote negotiations diminish considerably the need of travelling and thus has positive impact on e.g., fuel consumption (consumed less) and emissions (caused less). As for promoting equality, negotiation room has a translator for multilingual meetings, startup client companies have woman entrepreneurs as well and entrepreneurs represent different age groups.

Summary of Starttisatama Business Acceleration Services   

Starttisatama provides workspace for small businesses seeking rapid growth,  offers workspace for 12 growth-minded entrepreneurs. For each firm, maximum length of stay is two years.      Open space office allows efficient networking. Starttisatama offers personal desks, shared lounge, cafeteria, and spacious conference room to facilitate private meetings and inhouse-training events.  Monthly rent  includes use of above-mentioned facilities, availability of regular business consulting hours from Cursor advisors and business coaching events by external experts. Starttisatama clients have access to fully equipped conference room and private meeting rooms with catering and office services. First two startups arrived, and operations started on 16th May 2022.

Starttisatama Business Acceleration Services´ future outlook

Starttisatama´s facility and services have been maintained after the finalization of Twin Campus project by Cursor Oy as part of its normal day-to-day operations. The development process of Starttisatama started in November 2021 and the process (evaluation and development and expansion of services) has continued after the end of Twin Campus project. The application for new innovative startup companies with will and ability to grow is constantly open. Collaboration between Cursor and especially Xamk (other educational institutions as well) will continue to attract new startup entrepreneurs from students as well.

The desired long-term impacts of the project regarding Starttisatama is that its services will be actively used by startup companies and several companies will be established by students. Recruitment process and path of acquiring and attracting new companies from educational institutions is working well. Starttisatama has expanded its workspace from 12 due to increased demand. Potential startups, from abroad as well, are competing hard to get as clients into very attractive and famous Starttisatama.

-Marja Holopainen & Tiina Liikka, Cursor Oy-

TWIN CAMPUS

 

 

Prevention and utilization of Invasive Alien Species – PURE project final seminar is coming

Prevention and utilization of Invasive Alien Species – PURE project is ending, and the final seminar will be organized online on  5th April 2023 at 9.00-12.00.

”Prevention and utilization of Invasive Alien Species – PURE” Project has been focusing on awareness rising events about the environmental impacts and prevention methods of Invasive Alien Plants, such as Hogweed, Himaylayan balsam and Lupine in South-Savo region. The target groups have been schoolchildren, students and local communities. The Project has also carried out research activities and studied the possible utilization of Hogweed. As the completion of project is approaching, the project will organize a webinar about the results of the project activities.

You can register the final seminar via link latest 31st March 2023.
Link: http://bitly.ws/Ca3m

King’s Road Renascence project new platform has been published

King’s Road Renascence project aims was to improve competitiveness, capability and competence of new business possibilities for SME in the programme area.  Project focused on increasing the attraction and awareness among companies, tourism sector and users of the services.

New digital King’s Road platform has been launched and you can create your own account on the site and join marketing Kuninkaantie as Finland’s best tourist road. The platform is open to all destination in the region and actors can who are interesting to add their destination to platform can contact Kuninkaantie ry.

Visit King’s Road platform

View this project in keep.eu

 

ImProfEdu (Improving Professional Education) final seminar was held in Kotka

The final event of ImProfEdu (Improving Professional Education) project was held in Kotka on the 15.12.2022. It was the final meeting of the participants of the project, that had started on the 1.5.2020. The event took place in Maritime Centre Vellamo and it welcomed 20 representatives of the project partners – Eduko (Kouvola Vocational Institute Ltd.) and Ekami (The Joint Authority of Education of Kotka-Hamina regional group).

During the meeting the participants heard some memories about different stages of ImProfEdu from Erja Pohju (the project manager in Ekami till 31.7.2022) and feedback from teachers and coordinators. It was a pleasure to hear the students’ memories also.

The participants were showed the ImProfEdu-video, that is one of the official result of the project and it is going to be used in the future to increase the students’ interest to take part in international cooperation projects. (Link for the official video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tru87FsZpHA )

Sami Tikkanen, the principal of Ekami, granted the students with the Certificates of participating in ImProfEdu.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE, PARTNERSHIPS AND NETWORKS. Final seminar of the EDUCRO project in Imatra on 28 September 2022

Why it is important to understand the customer experience in order to develop tourism and cultural services? How do the best festivals and events build their activities by means of cooperation networks? We’ll hear speeches by international top experts Tuija Seipell and Paul Gudgin on these themes in the final seminar of the EDUCRO project in Imatra at Kulttuuritalo Virta on Wednesday 28 September 2022 from 9.30 to 16.30.

In addition to the keynote speeches, at the final seminar of the EDUCRO project we’ll hear a presentation on the results of the project and case presentations of Finnish organizations that have participated in the project. A panel discussion on the seminar topics will close the day. More detail about the programme: https://www.lab.fi/en/events/final-seminar-educro-project
Registration for the seminar by 21 September: www.lyyti.fi/reg/EDUCRO_loppuseminaari_3633/en.