Kora - International network for growth

We are a new way to grow yourself, your ideas and your business. We are an international network of inspiring partners, events and places to work. input[type='submit'].minimal, button.minimal { background: #e3e3e3 !important; border: 1px solid #bbb !important; -moz-border-radius: 3px !important; -webkit-border-radius: 3px !important; border-radius: 3px !important; -moz-box-shadow: inset 0 0 1px 1px #f6f6f6 !important; -webkit-box-shadow: inset 0 0 1px 1px #f6f6f6 !important; box-shadow: inset 0 0 1px 1px #f6f6f6 !important; color: #333 !important; font-family: "helvetica neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif !important; font-size: 12px !important; font-weight: bold !important; line-height: 1 !important; padding: 8px 0 9px !important; text-align: center !important; text-shadow: 0 1px 0 #fff !important; width: 150px !important; } input[type='submit'].minimal:hover, button.minimal:hover { background: #d9d9d9 !important; -moz-box-shadow: inset 0 0 1px 1px #eaeaea !important; -webkit-box-shadow: inset 0 0 1px 1px #eaeaea !important; box-shadow: inset 0 0 1px 1px #eaeaea !important; 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36 posts

[thinkkora-blog]

Open coworking on a flexible basis

Regus has launched a new service for customers, looking for more flexibility.

Open Coworking is an option for those, who do not need a working place everyday, but comes occasionally couple of times per week. With this service a customer can choose the centre and the number of working days per month (can be 5 or 10 days), while also enjoying the benefits of Regus global lounge system.

More information:

[email protected]

[thinkkora-blog]

Life at Kora: BBQ

During spring and summer months Kora is organizing BBQ parties for members, partners and guests. Sausages, salad and beer.. can anything be better during the summer?

Each month Kora is hosting a networking event for its members, partners and guests. During warm months it is BBQ events, which gather everybody on the terrace. There is a chance to get to know new and old neighbors, find interesting contacts and just enjoy a grilled sausage. And if we are lucky, we get a bit of sun too!

[thinkkora-blog]

Kora’s cooperation with Laurea UAS and Aalto ES

This spring Kora  has launched a special offer for startup teams from Laurea Startup course and Aalto ES (Aalto Entrepreneurship Society). And first teams have already come.

Startup teams have free access to Kora coworking space for 2 months,  Kora events and one2one clinics with experts and investors, as well  as two business coaching sessions with Kora Innovation Director.

First teams  have already come to Kora and will have a chance to work in a business environment on their projects, as well as benefit from a large business community. This is a great opportunity for startup teams to work together, test their team skills and contact with other entrepreneurs, business people and industry experts. 

[thinkkora-blog]

Summer Launchpad - Startup program from LUTES

Summer in Lappeenranta is expected to be busy for the teams accepted to Summer Launchpad program, organized by LUTES (LUT Entrepreneurship Society).

Summer Launchpad is a 10-week program for startups. The goal of the program is to provide the teams with help, advice and best experience in their idea development and further company establishment. The program was created for students and researchers from LUT and Saimia, but attracted attention from outside as well. 

During the program the teams will have one-to-one coachings from their mentors, events on startup-related topics and excursions to startup events. Besides the teams will get 10 ECTS study points upon completing the program. 

Follow Kora (@ThinkKora) and LUTES (@LUT_ES) in social media and learn news on the program!

[thinkkora-blog]

Work flexibly with Businessworld membership

Work your own way in 1200 locations worldwide.

Regus and Kora offer a membership scheme Businessworld, which provides access to our business lounges and co-working and private space, if you need.

Our lounges are located in top locations: city centres, airports and business parks and can be easily accessed. Membership also covers discounts on meeting and video conferencing rooms, as well as WiFi and refreshments.

Whether you are on the move or just want to have an access to short-time workplace, Businessworld membership will cover your needs.

More information:

[email protected]

[thinkkora-blog]

Create your business presence at any place you want to be

Are you thinking to enter international markets? 

Kora together with Regus offers you a business address in a right place with the service Virtual Office. With over 3000 centers worldwide, we can offer a choice of the best addresses for your business. 

Virtual office might be the first step in creating an international presence for your business. We will handle your mail and manage your calls if needed.

More information:

[email protected]

[thinkkora-blog]

Co-working space in a business environment

Are you looking for space to grow and work?

Kora offers places in a co-working space. If you are a startup, freelancer or just want to benefit from working with others, open space is a great choice. You do not need to think about Internet, cleaning, coffee/tea or electricity. Everything is included and the places are ready to use!

Price: 70-160€/month.

More information:

[email protected] 

[thinkkora-blog]

Interactive marketing - a way to create a dialogue with your customers

Kora customer at Tampere - Iivariguru - helps the companies to engage the customers into targeted dialogues via digital interaction. We have talked with Juko and Tiina and asked them about their product and future projects.

Tell us briefly what IivariGuru does and how the idea came to you.

By 2020, 85% of customer-to-business interaction will be digital (Gartner Research). Interactive marketing increase customer engagement by zooming in on each individual customer. Digital interaction is marketing’s new core. Customers increasingly engage with companies through digital interaction. It’s the future, because it‘s convenient. But customers expect a meaningful, effective and personalized interaction.

Interactive marketing is a powerful way to benefit from this evolution in customer behaviour. It converts digital interaction with customers into targeted dialogues: valuable conversations, which you can influence and direct to achieve your business goals, while keeping focus on your customers’ expectations.

The goal of interactive marketing is to make every digital interaction valuable. Our goal is to bring this huge value to your business.

IivariGuru will help companies to build profitable dialogue with the customers. We are using a unique interactive marketing SaaS cloud solution, which helps you to create targeted, one-to-one digital dialogues with customers: around any topic, product, service, brand or campaign.

IivariGuru offers two kind of solutions for customers:

1.      Real-time customer feedback: we guide you how to monitor user satisfaction, discover moments of truth, map your customers’ purchase journey or benchmark your products, services and even branches with each other.

2.      Accelerated social media marketing: We help companies to create visually dashing competition, campaigns that harness the power social networks to maximize your audience and, achieving social media visibility and promoting your brand with user-generated content.

What kind of projects are you working on at the moment?

We have been lucky to be able to start working with quite a many different kind of projects, from micro companies into international chains. As we provide a tool to emphasize the feedback from the customers and turn it into a profitable dialogue. Our motto is “Don’t gather feedback. Promote it, listen to it and act accordingly”.

How is it operating your company from Kora’s co-working space?

Kora’s co-working space is absolutely the best way of working at the moment. The open space is great for fantastic discussions and innovation with other members. We have noticed that co-working space gives you possibility to work professionally and effectively without office. When you want to meet your customers in private you can easily rent a meeting room.

How has part of Kora community helped you so far?

One of the best things in Kora is the atmosphere. Every day it is great to wake up and come to work when knowing that if you are facing a challenge or having a great idea there is always somebody to work that thing through with you. We have also get help with the funding and leads. And Anabel and Timo are working hard to provide networking events for all of us in Kora to network, know each other and maybe face the potential customers together with more powerful products and services.

[thinkkora-blog]

Put your marketing basics in place!

Marketing has always been full of -isms, and this day and age is no different. Digitalisation, marketing automation, big data, social media and content marketing are the major topics of today. While it is true that all these tools can offer numerous possibilities for success, Kamon believes that it can only happen as long as the basics are in place.

Kamon will share their views (based on decades of experience) on how to build the basics, and execute cost-efficient and result-oriented marketing - while taking the most out of the hottest marketing tools. More about Kamon: www.kamon.fi (currently only in Finnish)

Check also Kamon video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxIwebef7Bk

[thinkkora-blog]

Hi, we are Clover Factory!

We are a start-up from Lappeenranta, focusing on developing, funding and managing R&D projects. Thus far we have worked with SMEs and research institutes in order to get financial aid for developing an idea to a concept that can be commercialized. We connect student, researchers and business people so that these ideas can be upgraded to a commercialization project. Our team helps to manage and execute these projects so that they will become new business!

Do you have a good idea? Do you need help finding the correct people? Do you need money? We can help you! Our services are mainly aimed at small companies needing public or private funding. Our team also consists of executive professionals who can help you to develop pitching, sales and marketing. Also generating business plans are our specialty. So contact us and get our business a facelift!

Get to know more: https://goo.gl/WtmsCK

http://cloverfactory.fi/

[thinkkora-blog]

Design-Thinking Appetizer Workshop

Goodbye comfort zone - we are bringing Aalto Design Factory to Kora. This workshop will give you a fast-paced and hands-on introduction to the core of Design Thinking. Within two hours you'll learn about the key methodologies to start tackling your business challenges from a human-centered perspective and bring your products and services to a new level. We will help you identify needs from other participants, synthesize them and translate them into ideas and prototypes. No design experience required, just bring all your confidence and curiosity!

Maud, Clemens and Markku have been instructing design-thinking methodologies at Aalto Design Factory for several years, coaching year-long student product and service development projects in collaboration with top-leading universities such as Stanford University.

Get to know more: https://goo.gl/6uhNrt

[thinkkora-blog]

Different strategies required to enter healthcare markets in Denmark and Germany

The Danish and German healthcare markets differ not only in size and market potential, but also in the general structure of the healthcare system, the buying structure and the business culture. In his presentation Carsten Franke will present different possibilities to access the Danish and German healthcare markets. The difference in the strategies will show how important in-depth market knowledge is to build a comprehensive internationalization strategy. A thorough analysis and strategy development will make decisions easier on how to enter which market(s).

With more than 15 years of international business experience Carsten Franke is an expert in developing and implementing sales and export strategies. He helps companies to enter new markets and to launch products in European healthcare markets, especially in Germany, DACH and Denmark.

Get to know more: https://goo.gl/h1cqAF

Carsten Franke, International Business Consultant

[phone], [email protected]

[thinkkora-blog]

Customer Story: Hermia Business Development

Tell us how the business idea came to you. Originally almost 24 years ago the Head of Tampere University of Technology (TUT) Mr. Seppo Loimio presented the idea that Mr. Pekka Jussila should start a new company. Business idea was to offer services to entrepreneurs and companies to create new businesses, especially for new start-ups but also help existing companies to create new products and new business using latest technology and knowhow coming from TUT. Today the basic idea is the same; to help customers to make new and growing business. Services are developed to help in funding, strategy and going to international markets.

Does the name “Hermia” mean anyting? Mr. Jussila was the Chairman of Student Union of TUT among those who cast the first foundation stone of the Technology Centre Hermia in Hervanta. There is an urban legend that the name Hermia came as a combination of the location of Hervanta and name Mia, who was wife or daughter of the designer of the technology centre. Hermia Business Development Ltd. was located first in Hermia and made projects as a subcontractor to Tampere Technology Centre Hermia so it was a good idea to take this name. Who are your customers? Mainly SME companies but we also work with some big companies and even stock market companies. We also do work for public sector and are involved in some international projects, like EU-projects. What services are you providing to them? We are investigating oversea markets, finding partners, customers, salesmen, agents as well as distribution and delivery channels. We are also helping our customers with funding. In most cases it means planning and applying for funds to develop business and products or going international.  We are also managing small seed capital fund with almost 50 private investors. Tell us a bit about your current projects. At the moment we have several customers who we represent in Cebit exhibition, Hannover Messe, Bauma etc. We are looking for cooperation partners and customers for them. We are also making several market studies in China and running a China program to make cooperation and projects with EU based companies and Chinese companies. Also a joint project of Finland and Vietnam IPP is buying services from us to evaluate Vietnamese growth companies to be in a pilot to get seed investments. We are also experts in business development sector in EU-funded project called Use It Wisely. We also work as the business development expert partner in an EU-funded project called Use it Wisely, where we help commercialize the results coming out of the project. We are also designing projects and raising funds to several growth companies including seed capital and grant money. Why did you join Kora? Did it help you to grow the business? As Technology Centre Hermia was something new at 1987, Kampusareena and Regus Kora are a special and a totally unique combination today. This location is excellent! It’s a very inspirational environment, excellent spaces, interesting neighbour companies, nice prices, very professional staff, interesting info sessions, a lot of new contacts and a lively community. We wanted to be the first one to get in to Kampusareena and Regus Kora. We have got a lot of new friends, prospects and customers through Kora and we are very happy about our cooperation with Kora. Special thanks to team Tampere!

[thinkkora-blog]

Startup softlanding to international markets

Ready to scale to international market?

Kora has cost efficient services for your international expansion. With our Business World Card you can work in 900 business lounges worldwide. Virtual office offers you an address in your target market and with full softlanding service we help you to establish your company, branch or subsidiary.

 More info:

[email protected]

[thinkkora-blog]

Support for raising funding

Are you looking of international growth? You might be also in need of private or public funding.

Kora is helping you with identifying suitable public and private sources for funding, with your readiness to raise funding and with your pitching skills.

Ask for free consulting and tailored service package for your company.

[email protected]

[thinkkora-blog]

Social media as a service

Do you need help in social media marketing?

Kora can help you setting up the social media channels suitable for your business as well as keep them updated regularly in Finnish, English, Swedish, Russian or Spanish. We can also help you with writing all kind of blog posts, marketing materials and interviews.

Example services:

-          Setting up the social media accounts

-          Updating the various channels and managing social media accounts

-          Sponsored posts

-          Blog posts

-          Interviews

-          Analytics

Let’s discuss more about your needs and find the best possible solution for your social media marketing. Contact Annukka for more information:

[email protected] / [phone]

[thinkkora-blog]

Learning from our customers at Kora at Evoluon

Learning form your customers is important. That also goes for us! At Kora at Evoluon we’ve improved the use of the space after seeing how our customers actually use the space and tell us their experiences. That led to some small changes in the setup of restaurant and the placement of dedicated workarea around the bench. 

Restaurant: plants & pencils

Watching how big and small groups move through and use the restaurant area, we’ve created sort of compartments for the different types of use. At the back, more room and standing as it was used mostly for networking & drinks, the centre stays as is, and the firts part more dedicated to working.

Just placing the plants and pencils at the right spots already did the trick. Also a screen at the entrance corner now shows a movie of the history of the venue. A bonus: a small stage is created. We’ll see how the visitors start using that!

Space to work

Besides the offices we’ve created a dedicated work area at the bench at the entrance. A big table with 8 comfortable leather seats, inviting people to sit and well... work. For some small talks there are two corners with incredible comfortable chairs and bean bags for the young and creative. 

The typical Kora Innovation room now has two walls usable as blackboard, and also tables and chairs to work. So, no excuses anymore! Drop in today and see how we can help you and your business to grow!