Helsinki, the capital of Finland and the country’s largest urban area, has been fundamentally shaped by its maritime environment. Its peaceful shoreline is one of the city’s most beautiful features. Helsinki is the most northern of continental European capitals and the most eastern of all Nordic capitals.

Helsinki, being Nordic, just like Oslo, Stockholm, and Copenhagen, but not Scandinavian, is often overlooked by media executives, yet it has a vibrant media scene worthy of hosting INMA’s annual Media Innovation Week. We’ll visit companies that lead the industry in multiple aspects of our industry — not least in digital subscriptions: Alma Media, Sanoma Media, and KsF media, amongst others. A quick search in INMA’s Best Practices Archive will show you just how innovative Finnish media companies are.

The city, and by extension Finland, is often top of the list in many world rankings in terms of quality of life. The most famous ranking is Finland being labelled “the world’s happiest country.” And if that isn’t enough reason to join INMA members there in September 2024, here are a few general statistics on Finland:

• Finns’ trust in other people is the highest in Europe (Eurobarometer, 2018)
• Finland is second in the world for freedom of the press (World Press Freedom Index, 2021)
• Finland ranks second in the world in the Sustainable Travel Index (Euromonitor, 2021
• Helsinki is the fourth healthiest capital in Europe (treated.com, 2020)