VIA 2026 Collaborative Playground with Crazy Town

VIA Vantaa Industrial & Innovation Activator and Crazy Town present: BEFORE THE PILOT What could your company achieve with access to capabilities, technologies and knowledge beyond its own team and by leveraging on the Ecosystem? Before the PilotCollaborative Playground · Vantaa Industry Activator × Crazy Town · Business Vantaa Week26 October 2026 What makes collaboration between established companies, young B2B solution providers and research worth the time? Finnish companies have strong capabilities. The opportunity lies in turning them into growth together. According to the Finnish SME Barometer (autumn 2026), one in four SMEs runs research and development in some form. Among the others, just 3% plan to start in the coming year. And 13% of SMEs work with universities, universities of applied sciences or research institutes. Every successful collaboration starts with a first test. Before the Pilot is a practical working session on what makes that first step worth it for each side. That means the established company looking for new solutions, the young B2B provider looking for its first customers, and the research team looking for real business partners. We start from concrete cases. Companies, research organisations and startups share their direct experience of working together: how a first test took shape, what made it move forward, and what they learned along the way. The conversation then opens to everyone in the Room. We explore why to collaborate, when R&D really pays back, and which conditions make a pilot succeed. Who should join: leaders of SMEs and mid-size companies, early-stage B2B founders, and academic and research teams working with industry. What you take home: Insight: a short paper on the conditions for successful collaboration, built from the room's insights and VIA + Crazy Town experience. Adoption Readiness Canvas: a first version of a practical tool to prepare your next pilot. Community access: a place in the Vantaa Industry Activator community, with follow-up conversations across clusters. All invited! Agenda (to Be Confirmed) 08:30 - 09:00 - Welcome Coffee 09:00 - 11:00 - Before The Pilot Case Study Live Discussion Testimonials Networking