A look back at the Living Lab Event in Oslo
At the end of November 2018, Northern Connections gathered international clean-tech companies from all over Northern Europe in Oslo to participate in the Living Lab Event - Økern Sentrum together with Steen & Strøm, Storebrand. This event was held on the 29th of November 2018, and the event was officially opened by the Vice Mayor of Environment and Transportation, Lan Marie Nguyen Berg. The programme of the event was filled with speeches from representatives, presentations of innovation towards creating the best solutions, group sessions, pitches and so much more. Over 20 companies participated and came to listen and talk to the representatives from Økern Sentrum, Steen & Strøm and Storebrand.
Furthermore, the plenary session, which was quite extraordinary for the event, was filled with discussion, where energy solutions, smart transport of goods, transport and circular were the main topics. After the discussion, 19 companies had to pitch their solutions to the buyer and the jury from Oslo Business Region, Steen & Strøm, Storebrand, and OREEC. The programme from the Living Lab Event is available HERE.
Watch this video - to get an insight of the Event in Oslo.
Our purpose
At the Living Lab Event, the Northern Connections project aimed to open business opportunities for Norwegian renewable technology suppliers by gain access to Living Labs across Northern Europe and opportunities to establish themselves in new markets, while providing Northern European suppliers with the opportunity to participate in development projects in Oslo. Our project is working towards establishing a North-European network of actors who, in cooperation, lower the threshold for deliveries of renewable technology across borders and develop smarter and more sustainable Northern European cities.
Kristin Anderssen, Special Advisor at the City of Oslo, who was in charge of structuring the Living Lab Event in Oslo, says the following about the event: "It was amazing to see different clean technologies from the North Sea Region pitching to the developer of Økern Sentrum, Steen & Strøm, Storebrand. Northern Connections made this possible. OREEC and the City of Oslo are so thrilled that SMEs from North Sea Region came together to Oslo for a day of networking, pitching and hopefully some of the solutions will be getting a contract. This event gave a great view for the developers."
The creation of the Living Lab Event
Through connections and research, the city of Oslo and OREEC discovered that Økern Centrum was the perfect place and match to be hosting a Living Lab Event for the Northern Connections project, since Økern Sentrum still was in the planning face and in the preface in relation to figure out the solutions. Kristin Anderssen and Mali Skogen had through WP6 arranged a meeting in Oslo, thus the partner of Northern Connections and the project leaders from Steen & Strøm, Storebrand, could meet each other.
In relation to this, Kristin Anderssen said: “It was important and essential to build up the trust and confidence, thus that the event would be worth attending for the clean tech companies from all over Europe.”
On behalf of Northern Connections, we must say that we were incredibly impressed by the high level of participants, the technologies that were presented and the commitment to help make Økern sustainable and suited for a greener future using clean technology. In addition, we would like to thank all the participants for a very successful event.
Einar Kleppe Holthe, who is founder and co-owner of Norwegian Icons AS and a Special Advisor at Oslo Business Region, was also present and giving a speech at the event. Additionally, he was recently in Davos 2019, where he presented the Living Lab Event at Økern Sentrum as an example.
READ MORE about Økern Sentrum and it’s development HERE!
Overview over presentations from the Living Lab Event - Økern Sentrum 2018:
Host presentations:
1. Lan Marie Berg Oslo kommune
2. Pål Samuelsen Økernbyen
3. Stina Låstad Pådriv
Participants presentations:
1. ISSOL
2. Pixii
3. Fortum Oslo Varme
4. FUSen
5. Asak
6. ML System
7. Clean Motion
8. MyEnergy
9. Schneider Electric
10. OrbitalSystems
11. Velove
12. Arbnco
13. Free Energy Innovation
14. PowUnit
15. Construction City