Collab - Economical sustainability and cross-sectoral collaboration for creative industries

Collab – Financial Sustainability and Cross-Sector Collaboration for the Event Industry

Collab is an ESR+ funded project running from 1 January 2026 to 31 May 2028, supported by the Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment of Southeast Finland (ELY-keskus). The project focuses on strengthening the financial sustainability and cross-sector collaboration of the event industry in Finland.

The project develops the business competence of professionals working in culture and arts events, enhancing their capacity to operate sustainably in increasingly complex industry environments. It also supports creative-sector professionals in recognizing and articulating their broad, transferable skill sets, enabling them to better position themselves in emerging roles and markets.

A central aim of Collab is to build a creative-sector competence network and a cross-sector competence model. These structures will help actors in municipal, organizational, and business sectors to identify and utilize creative-industry expertise more effectively. The project promotes new ways for these sectors to collaborate within the competence network established during the project.

Through work-life pilots conducted in several locations, the project will translate newly identified skills into concrete creative-sector services and cross-sector operational models.

At its core, Collab seeks to 'eventify' the living urban environment—connecting event-industry expertise with cities and organizations in spaces where such expertise has not traditionally been used. This approach both strengthens and showcases the diverse capabilities of event professionals, while opening new opportunities for collaboration, innovation, and local vitality.

Consortium Partners

• Metropolia University of Applied Sciences
• Tapahtumateollisuus (The Finnish Event Industry Association)
• Jamk University of Applied Sciences