With a few weeks of meetups, lectures, and workshops done and dusted, the TREMOR incubator is now up and running. The participants, or TREMORIANS as the group of 17 teams has taken to calling themselves, have already had the chance of meeting with the programme’s mentors and be matched up with the best ones for their team, as well as taking part in several workshops covering key entrepreneurial tools & skills.
“It’s heart-warming to see this wonderful group of people interested in social impact come together!” gushed TREMOR project lead Minttu Ripatti. “It’s only been a few weeks, but they’ve all done fantastic work so far, and I really believe in them going forward,” she added.
Rosa Salmivuori, the City Centre Campus innovation ecosystem lead and a close collaborator of Ripatti on TREMOR, agreed and praised the enthusiasm of the teams: “The programme has started very well,” she said with satisfaction. “It’s been nice to see how motivated the participants are.” And while she admits that TREMOR’s first weeks have been intensive, she’s glad to see that the sessions have left the teams happy. For many, an especially memorable experience during the programme’s kick-off week was the improvisation theatre workshop organised by Tunneteatteri, a group which traditionally organises theatre courses for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
“It helped us get more relaxed with each other. It was a nice ice breaker and trust builder,” Salmivuori described. “All participants and mentors really made an effort there and we got a lot of positive feedback from that. It was something different and it worked really well when it was combined with a short keynote about the importance of safe space.”
TREMOR participant Christal Spel joined the programme with her team after having taken part in the SÄRÖ/FRACTURE pre-incubator to further develop YEPP ry, a one-stop centre for bettering the educational and professional prospects of young people of immigrant background. Spel shares the organisers’ excitement, saying that the programme has been upbeat and motivating from day one: “I learnt many new things right from the start, with the first meeting teaching me about building the right team – a subject that hit home!"
At first, Spel was quite apprehensive about joining the programme, as social entrepreneurship is new terrain for her. “But I was certain that I needed to learn new things about building an excellent enterprise with a vision as big as YEPP ry”, she explained. Spel looks keenly forward to the mentoring journey, as it will engage her in practical matters related to building her association. She also expects to develop collaborating projects with some of the other participants. “I think that by the end of this programme, YEPP Ry will be set to function excellently,” Spel says excitedly.
The programme will inevitably be an exciting journey for the 17 teams, who’ll doubtless experience many more inspiring sessions and moments of insight before the final in June 2023. Expect more updates from the teams and their journeys before that, and in the meanwhile, you can take a closer look at the participating teams and what they’ll be working on at the programme's 2022-2023 participant page.