From 13 to 16 November, we visited the city of Košice, in Slovakia. We were there to attend the Profesiadays recruitment event on behalf of BusinessOulu and the city of Oulu, and we had one goal: to find new IT talent willing to live and work in Oulu! This naturally meant that ICTOulu was there, on behalf of the companies on their platform, but they were certainly not alone. International House Oulu was there as well, and they told people all about their services for those who want to move to our beautiful city. For two whole days we had excellent conversations with people visiting our booth, and they were very interested in the IT ecosystem in Oulu. We used each opportunity to tell them about the jobs and services we have available, and about our city. Many of them were very interested in Finland as well, and in life in Oulu. Since one of our representatives is an immigrant, we had the opportunity to tell our visitors what Oulu is like for someone who’s not actually from Finland! The enthusiastic stories surely managed to convince people that Oulu is indeed a great place to live, and that the snow is exactly as beautiful as it seems.
Of the people we spoke to, a surprising amount seriously considered moving to Oulu for a job. Several left their CV and many more will have found their way to the ICTOulu website with their many companies and open vacancies. On top of that, two local IT companies approached us and expressed their interest in cooperating with Oulu-based IT companies. ICTOulu has set up meetings with these companies and will use these opportunities to tighten the bonds between Oulu and Košice. There are plans to have the Slovakian companies meet up with Oulu-based IT companies, possibly online or perhaps we’ll even have a Slovakian delegation visiting our city sometime next year. We’re sure many good things will come from this cooperation, for all companies involved, and maybe we’ll even have new Oulu-based job opportunities.
All in all, the visit was a great success, and hopefully we will soon see an increase in the number of Slovakian IT talent in our Oulu!
Text by Arjane Kerkhoven
We will post updates throughout the month on ICTOulu, as well as on our LinkedIn channel. If you want to know more about our activities and we how can support your business, please feel free to contact us.