Although I prefer the apartments at the Accome Parliament, the rest of the group stayed at the SAS Radisson Plaza just east of the Central Railway Station. The 20-minute walk to Stadia started by a new Ice Park directly on Railway Square.

On the other side of the Ice Park, we continued walking southbound on Mikonkatu, on the cold morning.

Further down Mikonkatu, looking back over the shoulder, the buildings look less modern.

On the way, we crossed by the Esplanadi, that runs down to the ferry docks and market.

As we crossed Mannerheimintie — the major street in Helsinki — we saw one of the famous electric trams.

Lonnrotinkatu runs past Stadia and towards the harbour where ships are built.

At Stadia, Taina had arranged for us to use the great hall on the top floor of the building. We were honoured with the grandness of the room, although our small group occupied only one small table.

We caught Gary up on the progress to date, and he described some of his research into innovation and leadership.

After a quick lunch out, we returned to the great hall to finalize the agenda for the Rendez workshop with sponsor on the next day. Since DLH was flying out early the next morning, he chose to relax, instead.

In these few days, we laid the foundations for the research agenda over the next year.

This winter, there hasn’t been much snow in Finland, but the weather was cold and cloudy. The workshop was centered at historic Haikko Manor, just southwest of Porvoo.

While the Academy of Finland had their sessions in the older building, we had our meetings in the congress centre closer to the sea.

This research team, with roots in the Systemic Business Community dating back to 1999, have jointly explored research and written papers together. For this meeting, each of the us spent one to two hours focused on topics in innovation, bringing the others up to date on recent learnings and discoveries.

At a relaxed pace, we shared different backgrounds, approaches and ideas on innovation.

At the end of the first day, Minna served some lemon liqueur from Malta, along with a traditional side of olives.

Here’s as close to an official portrait for the event (standing outside the manor on a rainy afternoon, with the temperature approaching zero!)

These meetings provided the foundation for the research agenda that will stretch into 2008. Additional preparations continued in Helsinki on the next few days.