How to Brand Nations, Cities and Destinations

Two Finnish place branding specialists have written a planning book for place branding.

"Usually, a country brand is not focused, resulting in unsuccessful place branding. It is possible to successfully raise your national identity to the level of an attractive brand. Building a country brand is an investment, with strong positive returns. This book will guide you along the path to building a successful brand."

More info:
How to Brand Nations, Cities and Destinations
A Planning Book for Place Branding

Jazz Heat Bongo Beat w/ Mulatu Astatke @ Kulttuuritalo, Helsinki, 4.4.2009

Flow Festival is ganging up with Ricky-Tick Records to produce a unique event entitled Jazz Heat Bongo Beat at Helsinki’s Kulttuuritalo ("Culture House"). The all-nighter at the historic venue will feature an astonishing headlining live act in the Ethiopian jazz legend Mulatu Astatke, touring Europe with UK’s The Heliocentrics, hot on the heels of their new collaboration album "Inspiration/Information".

Jazz Heat Bongo Beat, marking the fifth anniversary of Ricky-Tick Records, will also feature live performances by Finnish greats The Five Corners Quintet, Dalindèo and Auteur Jazz, each of which are also part of the label’s roster. The club space, taking residence in the lobby of the building, will be headlined by DJ Nicola Conte from Italy. The event will kick off at 7 pm and go on until 2 am.

More info: www.flowfestival.com/en/

Fruugo - secretive social e-commerce startup

Fruugo is a new shopping service that will be launched later on this year.

At Fruugo, they would like to bring retailers and consumers throughout Europe together for a new kind of shopping experience, one where consumers find a better way to shop and retailers find better ways to grow their business.

They want to make it easy for consumers to buy the stuff they want, in their own language and using the payment method they prefer – without the hassle of exchange rates, complex shipping costs, taxes, or staying up all night worrying "am I actually going to get my stuff?". They want to help with all that.

Latest rumours: Fruugo @ Crunchbase.com

Crayon Physics Deluxe

Crayon Physics Deluxe is a 2D physics puzzle / sandbox game, in which you get to experience what it would be like if your drawings would be magically transformed into real physical objects. Solve puzzles with your artistic vision and creative use of physics.

The game won the Grandprize in Independent Games Festival 2008.

So simple, but addictive!

The first Finnish south pole expedition 2008

The Finnish expedition will ski unsupported to the South Pole in December 2008. The expedition's journey across the World's coldest continent, Antarctica, is over 1000km long and will take about 50 days to complete.

During this time the two-man expedition will be fighting against extremely low temperatures, freezing winds and physical exhaustion.

There's only a handful of people who have skied to both Poles worldwide. When reaching the South Pole, Kari Poppis Suomela will be the 12th person in the world to reach both poles unsupported.

More info: www.thepole.fi

Hotel Room

Can you call it a hotel if all the rooms are located in different cities of the world?

The founders of the Hotel Room say: "Sure you can. And we call it a hotel even though only the first room, room number 1, is open for business. It's located in Kallio district, in Helsinki, Finland".

THE FIVE CORNERS QUINTET RECORD RELEASE PARTY

Hot Corner, the new longplayer by The Five Corners Quintet is out and causing a stir. Recent gigs have shown that the tracks are steaming on stage as well, and now it's time to celebrate the release by the means of the official record release party in Helsinki. The Quintet will lively up the legendary rock club Tavastia this coming Friday, December 19.

Appearing live on stage, The Five Corners Quintet consists of Teppo Mäkynen (drums/ band leader), Timo Lassy (sax), Jukka Eskola (trumpet), Mikael Jakobsson (piano), and Antti Lötjönen (double bass).

You probably know it already, but let's say it anyway: This one's gonna be hot!

A book about Helsinki vol.2 compiled by Bulgaria Mag

Bulgaria Magazine has done it again:

"The damn best city guide you can ever find about our beloved city"
-Mashmarket crew

"If you really wanna know something about Helsinki, forget Lonely Planet and cop this book here..."
-Top Billin' crew

Get the book here.

Helsinki's metro will run without drivers in year 2013

The operation control system of Helsinki’s metro is being replaced. The modernisation also provides a natural opportunity for automating the system.

According to the target schedule of the contract, the metro will run without drivers towards the end of 2013.

Automated metro services are used by many cities around the world, the nearest of which is Copenhagen.

Finland in 60 seconds