The Alexanderson Institute organised on 26th October the first event in the COM³ matchmaking series. Inspiring speakers from Sweden shared their insights about “how to build a tech community”.

More than ever, rural areas are being praised for their quality of life. Yet they face major uncertainties when it comes to remain attractive places to live, work and invest. As part of the NSR project “COM³: building competencies for competitive companies”, the online event series “COM³ together” share inspiring stories and good practices, and allow rural enthusiasts to network and promote the adoption of digital technologies by small companies.

The first part of a series of three matchmaking sessions organised by the COM³ partners at the Alexanderson Institute took place on 26 October from 14:00 to 15:00 on the topic “How to build a tech community?“.

To answer this question, Mathilda Hult facilitated a discussion with Pontus Bremdahl, Christine Björklund, and Micha Björck. The speakers shared their experiences in building the regional event Halland Tech Week and presented the idea and the first steps in their work of making the municipality of Varberg, Sweden into a mecha of tech.

Micha Björck is the project manager of the Interreg project Futures by Design. She initiated Halland Tech Week, a regional event focused on engineering/IT/technology for SMEs in the Halland region, Sweden. She shared her insights and experiences in creating a regional event, focusing on both the keys to success and the pitfalls to avoid.

Pontus Brendhal, CEO of Digital Creation, a developer consulting company, actively contributed to the organisation of the Halland Tech Week.

Christine Björklund is a copywriter and journalist who has written a report on behalf of the Alexanderson Institute that lays the groundwork for establishing the municipality of Varberg as an IT cluster – a Mecha of Tech. She interviewed researchers, SMEs, and regional and local stakeholders to find the secret sauce for successfully building a community.

The other two events in the series are:

  • How can we grow and innovate with open data? On 8 November
  • Regenerative tourism on 5 December

Register now and choose to attend just one event or more!