When I joined Ülemiste City the vision of a smart city for smart people was already in place. Today, the vision has grown into a future-focused urban environment with 18 000 talents from more than 73 countries and 400 companies. Based on the labor tax from business ventures, the contribution of Ülemiste City to the Estonian economy is third after Tallinn and Tartu. Creating an environment that fosters innovation is very important because 80% of IT companies in Ülemiste City focus on innovation export.
It is not usual in real estate development to pay so much attention to data, sustainability, education and community. In Ülemiste City we are positioning ourselves more and more as a data based service that supports the Estonian economy. We gather data on environment, talents, services, community, knowledge and economy, to encourage business growth and the emergence of an innovative smart economy. The Ülemiste City radar helps us to monitor our fast-developing environment and advance our goals even in difficult time periods like the COVID outbreak or during the breakdown of procurement systems due to the war in Ukraine.
Innovation needs a stimulating environment: areas where thoughts can flow freely and an active community that can help develop new ideas. In Ülemiste I have always stood for human-centered development and placemaking where the environment helps bring people together, builds a strong community and helps innovation thrive.
A smart city is a people-centered environment that leads naturally to business growth, innovation and success. This is why in Ülemiste we also stress the importance of community and develop consciously the social infrastructure that helps talents connect and build innovation. An active community is a necessity for business co-operation and innovation.
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We look after the health of our community and have developed a 3×3 health model with Tartu University that helps us create an environment that fosters the social, mental and physical health of our talents. Research shows that walking for only 30 minutes can help think better and come up with better solutions. In Ülemiste we have a trail for walking meetings where talents can discuss their ideas in the fresh air and develop more innovative ideas. We have 10 outdoor areas for work and meetings, so people can take their laptop and thoughts outside and see if the new location also gives them new viewpoints.
This is how we can develop an increasingly smarter, more human-friendly, sustainable, and attractive environment for innovation.
