Welcome to Espoo!

Dear colleagues and friends,

I am happy to invite you to the Eurocities annual conference from 8 to 10 June 2022 in Espoo, Finland.

What kind of cities do we and the future generations want to live in? What creates the value of future European cities? The City of Espoo is a proud host of the Eurocities conference and annual general meeting from 8 to 10 June 2022. Espoo 2022 will open a new window to dream, act and lead the future – together.

We invite European cities to turn the lessons learned from the pandemic into meaningful actions – for the people, planet, and prosperity. Inspired by the Nordic summer light, we will find a way to turn our dreams into action for a bright future for cities and their citizens. Co-creation is the key to building a sustainable future in cities. In Espoo, we will learn from each other how to build a culture of trust in cities and share the best tools for co-creation.

Jukka Mäkelä, Mayor of Espoo

Espoo

Espoo is one of the European forerunners in innovation and sustainable smart city development. Home to the leading innovation and technology hub in the Nordic countries, world-class research institutes, SMEs and global company headquarters, Espoo is the hotspot of innovation in Finland.

Next door to Finland’s hottest start-up hubs, you can find many of the most valuable Finnish companies. Espoo is also where Finland’s two most important innovation players are located – Aalto University and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. Slush, the leading start-up event in the world, and most of Finland’s unicorns were born here – as was the entire Finnish start-up miracle.

Espoo also leads the way in sustainability. The city aims to be the most sustainable city in Europe, to reach the UN Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals early, by 2025, and carbon neutrality by 2030. A large part of this work is done together with Fortum, the local energy company that will discontinue the use of coal in the city’s district heating by 2025.

In Espoo, arts and culture are for everyone. Espoo’s cultural life brings together active communities and talented artists. The Espoo City Library has been awarded as world’s best in 2019. Tapiola Sinfonietta, the city orchestra, is renowned worldwide. In Espoo’s cultural houses, museums and theatres, you can find yourself amid surprising and inspiring experiences.

In Espoo, urban and nature come beautifully together. For a city of its size, Espoo is exceptionally green. The local nature is very rich and covers almost the whole spectrum of the characteristics that are unique to Finnish nature. There are 165 islands, 58 kilometres of seashores, 95 lakes and 18,700 hectares of forest in Espoo.

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