(Antonio) Thank you for joining us for another episode of Cleantech and Coffee.
We're coming to you today from the Hollywood Hills
and joining me is the Finnish Consul General Stefan Lindström.
Stefan, you've been in LA for quite some time now,
this is your second time in LA with the Consul.
What makes you keep coming back?
(Stefan) It's an easy answer actually. It's because of the dynamism.
People come to Los Angeles because there is such a drive for
everything. It's a
melting pot of people, ideas, from
everywhere in the world. And that's something that is absolutely amazing.
It creates possibilities, and the other one is
the attitude of the people here, the investors, of the universities
of everything. Nobody asks the question: 'where do you come from?'
Everybody is interested in where do you go.
It's as simple as that.
(Antonio) Well, with California, looking
at a map, it would seem like, with Finland and California,
would be on two different sides of the spectrum. However, in reality there are big similarities between the two economies.
However, in reality there are big similarities between the two economies.
How do you think we can work to bridge the gap between the Nordics and the West Coast?
(Stefan) The first is
really raising awareness because, its
raising awareness on both sides.
Creating an atmosphere here,
a possibility for the Finnish companies to bring in their technologies
and show them to the American market in a different way.
It requires time, money and
patience to do it.
But also presence.
You have to be present when you start doing something.
So raising the awareness on both sides. Also
about the research. What is being done, because
the Finnish technologies in many ways are
a way ahead, but we are not that good
in selling the products what we have
in the right way, and that's where we can do much, much more.
Also, in a way to bring a lot of American
people also on the public side to
Finland to see how have we solved these kinds of issues
back home. That would also create an awareness that would
create as an end result business.
(Antonio) Us, at Cleantech Invest, we are a Nordic company and that brings some implications with it.
a Nordic company and that brings some implications with it.
There are technological implications, but
but also, cooperation.
More than any other place in the world, the Nordics tend to
cooperate very well. So, what do you think?
(Stefan) The Nordics, it's a quite unique group
of countries in many ways,
the 5 Nordic countries. We
share the value base, we share the history, and
we have been doing this kind of cooperation on a government to
government basis since the early 50s.
We have a passport free zone since 1952, which is
totally unique in the world.
In practice, this means
when we deal with this in California and the US
we are opening now in a few weeks, Nordic LA,
which is a co-Nordic
working space for the creative industry
in Hollywood. We already have the Nordic Innovation House in Silicon Valley.
193 companies there together
from all 5 Nordic countries. It's quite an amazing place.
It's like a melting pot of companies sharing
information.
And I'm working personally very hard on creating what I call
the 'Nordic base', which would be a co-Nordic
or co-working space for the
Nordic companies and also the government representatives
in Los Angeles. That would have
the Consulates, the entities that are
doing business promotion, but also
one important aspect there is that it would entail the
global Nordic companies, that would have a business innovation hubs
in California. Because California is the
future in cleantech, in IT and
in many other issues. And
these companies need eyes and ears somewhere, and
California is the place to be. The SME's would
get traction from working together with their startup companies,
with the business promotion agencies and with the global companies.
So it would be a real win-win-win-win situation, for not
only the companies, but also the government.
So, that's something we really look forward to
establish here. (Antonio) I can see this is something you are passionate about
and this is
my first time hosting the interviews, so thank you for being such a gracious guest.
And hope to see you soon!
(Stefan) Thank you. (Antonio) Bye and thank you for joining us on Cleantech and Coffeee
For more infomation >> Cloud, Containers, and Kubernetes over Coffee with Carter Morgan - Duration: 11:57. 
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