Creve and HUB Turku will organize new virtual events to combat the risk of seclusion during these unusual times. Creve’s new Virtual PUB, which was launched in October, is a series of events and encounters for entrepreneurs that will take place at the Virtual HUB co-working space in Remo. Virtual PUB consists of weekly lunch meetings for entrepreneurs and international afterwork events.
At Virtual HUB, the users can freely move from one table to another. Only the users who are seated at the table can participate in the conversation. The Virtual HUB contains all the familiar tools of remote meetings, including video communication, chat, whiteboards, screen sharing, announcements, and other features.
– These Virtual PUB events are the first events organized in our new virtual space. We currently have several partners in the Turku area who are piloting and testing new ideas for virtual events. It might take a little time for people to find us and get excited, but I believe in what we have to offer and I’m quite positive the Virtual HUB will continue growing, says Juhani Koivuviita, the chairman and co-founder of Hub Turku.
An informal lunch event for entrepreneurs every Friday
As a part of Virtual PUB, Creve organizes Friday Lunch Together! – a weekly recurring lunch event designed for entrepreneurs to meet and network with one another in a casual setting. The event is held on Fridays at 11-14 at Virtual HUB.
According to entrepreneurship and business specialist Leena Janhila, there is a wide array of advisory sessions, trainings, accelerator programs, and other structured entrepreneurial events in Finland. However, Leena feels that there has been a lack of online events where people could socialize and exchange ideas in a more laid-back manner.
– The goal of Virtual PUB is to increase opportunities for entrepreneurs to connect with their peers. This is especially important now that people are working from home, without the presence of a familiar work community, Leena says.
Each lunch event has a theme. For instance, 30 October will be Halloween, 6 November will celebrate Finnish Swedish Heritage Day (Svenska Dagen), and 18 December will be a Christmas-themed event. The Friday lunches are informal; there is no host or specific program. Fridays were chosen as the best day to hold the events due to practical reasons.
– Creve organizes group advising on Fridays between 10 and 12. Now people can freely continue conversing with one another after the advising session ends, Leena says.
Afterwork for Fun brings together creative professionals from different countries
The other new, recurring event organized under the Virtual PUB moniker is Afterwork for Fun, which is organized every other Thursday from 18 to 20.
As the name suggests, Afterwork for Fun is a laid-back gathering where the participants can spend time, meet people, and discuss topics related to their shared interests. Each event also includes a surprise guest speaker!
Afterwork for Fun meetings were launched in October as a collaboration between Creve, Fast Track Music Export Accelerator (Music Finland) and Music WorX Accelerator (Kreativ Gesellschaft from Hamburg). The event’s production team also includes Kieku Records, a Finnish record company based in Berlin.
Afterwork for Fun fills a need for relaxed online interactions
The organizers are looking forward to the upcoming afterwork events.
– The afterwork events are a really nice way for us to connect on a more international level with likeminded teams of music business people from other countries. I think it’s great that we now have this place where we can meet and interact in a more relaxed and playful way with each other, says Claudia Wondratschke from Music WorX Accelerator.
Jonas Verwijnen from Kieku Records will be hosting the afterwork events. Jonas has prior experience in virtual event management and has long been trying to find a suitable online space for creative art professionals to spend time with their colleagues.
– In Kieku, we were looking forward to organizing an actual physical space where we could organize free discussion. When we talked about this idea with Leena and Claudia, we realized we could put it all together at the Virtual HUB. And I think it’s a great home for that. We are passionate about free information sharing in our company, and we have been looking for this kind of afterwork event for a long time, Joonas says.
The next Virtual PUB: Afterwork for Fun events will be held on 29.10., 12.11., 26.11., and 10.12.
Further information
Participation links and information about program will be published on the Virtual PUB page as well as at Creve’s Facebook events.
Creve’s Virtual PUB events are tested and developed as a part of the Creve 2.0 project, which is funded by the European Social Fund and will continue until the end of 2020.
