Arctic15: An Arctic Conference Without the Arctic

Across the circumpolar north, entrepreneurs are solving economic, social, and environment issues with technical ingenuity and shrewd business strategies. So why weren’t they invited to attend the Arctic15 entrepreneurship conference in Helsinki recently?

Earlier this month, more than 2000 entrepreneurs, investors, and business angels gathered in Helsinki to attend Arctic15, a “two-day conference that focuses on real business value” by providing entrepreneurs with “the tools, knowledge and the push needed to get that ROI.”

The conference was filled with inspiring speakers who urged attendees to push past failure; workshops that paved pathways for global scale-up; and speed dating sessions to find the right financial backer. It was held at a retrofitted industrial cable factory, the food was from local startup chefs, and the after party went on into the wee hours of the morning at the hip rooftop club. It had everything a startup scene needs to succeed.

But one aspect was missing from the conference – its namesake.  

The Lost Invitation of Arctic Entrepreneurs

Despite being called Arctic15 and having been run by ArcticStartup, a Helsinki based news coverage and community building organization for entrepreneurs, the conference had no tangible connection to the High North.

“There are surely some participants and will be some always,” says Tarmo Virki, Editor at ArcticStartup over email with High North News when asked if there were any participants from above the Arctic Circle.

However, the conference had no Arctic specific sessions and no emphasis on innovations that would benefit the economies, societies, and environments in the North. The closest to the Arctic Arctic15 got was the awarding of second prize in its pitching competition to Authenteq, a Reykjavik-based company that developed an accreditation app to raise credibility in online transactions.

“We do use the name a tad more freely - it’s a relic marking our Nordic home, which is close to Arctic circle looking from most parts of the world,” says Tarmo. And that is true. Compared to others that use the region as a marketing tool in a time when circumpolar hype is high, Helsinki and the emphasis on Nordic countries is close, both mentally and geographically, to the High North.

The Marketable Arctic

Branding a company, a product, or a conference experience as Arctic is not an ill-informed business strategy; it is built upon a long history of imaging the region as a pristine, untouched landscape of striking natural beauty that stretches into today’s marketing schemes.

Arctic Apples developed in British Columbia, for example, have genetically modified apples to resist browning when exposed to air and chosen the Arctic name with no real relation to the region. “We chose the name Arctic because like the snow-driven landscape for which they are named, the flesh of Arctic® apples remains pristine and unspoiled,” says Jessica Brady of Okanagan Specialty Fruits, Arctic Apple’s parent company, to High North News. While Ms. Brady notes that the company is “excited to see Arctic® apples reach consumers all over Canada and the US in the future,” she notes that “there is no direct relationship between our name and the beautiful Arctic region of Canada” that suffer some of the worst food insecurity in the developed world.

Arctic Apples is not alone in its use of Arctic imagery for marketing strategies. The  number of Arctic branded bottled water companies taken from springs in Florida, South Africa, and New Jersey are endless, an increasingly ironic symbol as the quality of freshwater degrades in Northern communities as manmade pollutants stored in the environment are released with climate change and turbidity from permafrost-driven thaw and erosion increases.


Innovation Happening in the Arctic Today

This marketing use of the Arctic’s narrative as pristine and beautiful is the foundation upon which the circumpolar branding of Arctic15 and Arcticstartup are built. Though Arctic Apples and Arcticstartup may perpetuate an imagined vision of the Arctic as untouched ice and snow, much lively business entrepreneurship is happening in the High North today.

The Arctic Innovation Competition held in Fairbanks, Alaska each year has supported inventions to pump seawater into elevated reservoirs for conversion into electricity, to detect toxic shellfish poisons quickly and cheaply, and lightweight inflatable snowshoes. In Canada, the Arctic Inspiration Prize has provided similar support for better hearing in education for northern youth and solar-diesel-storage hybrid energy systems for remote communities. And at the Arctic University of Tromso, students can complete a course on ‘Arctic Innovation and Entrepreneurship’ to understand how they can transform northern economic development.

As oil prices stay low and climate policies are enacted, the Arctic economy of today requires a new way of thinking about development to better serve the needs of its population – and circumpolar innovators like those awarded the Arctic Innovation and Arctic Inspiration prizes will help push the region’s economy forward into a prosperous future. While Arctic15 did not showcase entrepreneurship from and for the Arctic, the circumpolar north is alive with innovation.