Internationalisation Awards of the President of the Republic of Finland to Mobile Monday

Mrs Tarja Halonen, President of the Republic of Finland;
Mr Vesa Paananen, Founder of Mobile Monday; Mr Jari Tammisto, CEO Mobile Monday Oy

Tarja Halonen, President of the Republic of Finland, has presented the 2007 Internationalisation Awards to the Mobile Monday online community and to two Finnish companies Etteplan and Proventia Emission Control.

The award ceremony on the 14th February was the 40th in the history of the prize. The ceremony also marked the second time in the history of the Internationalisation Awards that a community has won the award. The objective of the Internationalisation Awards, which are coordinated by Finpro, is to help businesses to operate in an international environment and to boost their ability to develop and adopt new operating models.

“Finpro’s core mission is to inject the Finnish innovation environment with know-how and trends from the global marketplace. Another key goal is to promote the growth and internationalisation of Finnish businesses. The Internationalisation Award is our way to give recognition to enterprises that have already successfully demonstrated their ability to operate on the international market. These enterprises also act as points of reference and set a great example to others,” says Jorma Turunen, Managing Director of Finpro. The 2007 awards ceremony doubles as a celebration of the 40-year history of the prize. The Export Award of the President of the Republic of Finland, which preceded the Internationalisation Award, was founded in 1967.

Mobile Monday efficiently reaches mobile professionals around the world.

“We plan to host just over 700 Mobile Monday events in 2008 in 70 different cities around the world, and we expect to see more than 90,000 participants. These figures make Mobile Monday the world’s leading event organiser in the mobile technology industry,” explains Jari Tammisto, CEO of Mobile Monday.

Mobile Monday is a public online community which aims to bring together developers, decision-makers, researchers and funding agencies from the mobile industry through monthly events, international conventions, the online community and newsletters. The objectives are, amongst other things, to promote innovation within the mobile industry, to encourage networking amongst different organisations and to communicate industry trends, research findings and future projections. The organisation behind Mobile Monday is a Finnish NPO called Mobile Monday Oy, which coordinates the global community with the help of more than 300 volunteers.

(Text Finpro, photo Tommi Tuomi)