While Goodstein notes he didn’t travel to Helsinki to become the country’s PR person, he now finds himself citing statistics in his lectures and presentations garnered, for example, during his meetings with Nokia. “The company is now the largest camera manufacturer in the world. Not because they wanted to be the largest camera manufacturer in the world, but because they put a camera in every cell phone. That shocks a lot of people in the U.S., because Nokia is not really in the U.S. market anymore. But as a world leader, they are dominant. They are also poised to become the largest GPS provider in the world, because again, they are going to put GPS in every phone and once they have completed that, you’ll have no reason to go out and buy little GPS devices for your car. And most interestingly, Nokia is actually doing more on English translation than a lot of the American companies. The inexpensive Nokia phones exported to Africa and India include English language tutorials. They are helping indigenous people sell goods and services through the phone by knowing what the English definitions. They are saying, this is the language, and they realize they should be training the world in it. And they’re taking this proactive stance not with the $500 phone but with the $40 phone.”

On the social media front vis-à-vis Finland’s election process, Scott found himself thinking about things happening in Finland a very different way. “The election process is so different in a smaller country. You have a very conservative party that is probably better on women’s rights issues, one of the first bodies in government from that leadership and party to elect women. The number of women elected into Finnish parliament and running top positions in Finnish parliament is pretty amazing. It was educational to look at those as models in contrast to the political machine system we have in the United States where people actually work for a living in politics. I make reference to the political system all the time now.”

Goodstein remains in touch with his friends at Nokia, and has compared and written about the company’s new phones that have come out since his trip to Helsinki. “It’s been fun and exciting to be able to cite statistics and information that are new for the majority of my audiences.” He is in discussions with Matti Makkonen’s new mobile startup and his team that developed text messaging to explore how they can work together trying out some of their new technology. “There’s so much Finland has to offer on the social media front. I’m interested in seeing what will be next from this innovative country.”

It was a well organized trip, a packed schedule of interesting meetings and an all around great adventure.  I appreciated the amount of work and attention to every detail the City of Helsinki and Mikko Leisti put into making this experience run so smoothly for all of their DC visitors.

A special thanks to Mikko Leisti, Susanna Torvinen and all the staff at Pluto Finland!  I can’t wait to come back and visit soon!

Pekka is Nokia’s vice president of sales and marketing.  He gave me a brief tour and explained how Nokia became the largest cell phone provider in the world.  I learned that they are also the largest manufacture of cameras (because most of their devices now come with camera in them).  As their technology further advances, they will also be the worlds largest manufacturer of GPS navigators and MP3 players!  They even have a map of the amount of cell phones being purchased around the world with real time estimates being updated in real time.

It is an amazing story for a small Nordic pulp and paper factory to advance into the regions largest rubber and cable equipment provider.  But Nokia again reinvented themselves into becoming the dominate force in the mobile industry – all within the last 15 years.

I also learned that Nokia is consistently ranked as one of the best places to work in Finland and have helped many local businesses evolve.  It seemed that almost everyone I met in Helsinki knew someone that worked for or with Nokia.  This is probably because they are almost a third of the Helsinki Stock Exchange and represent over 3.5% of the Finnish Gross Domestic Product with over $35 billion in revenues.

I took a quick walk down recent memory lane in the Nokia cell phone museum display.  I even saw several of my old cell phones on display.  They had everything from their first mobile phones that weighed several pounds to the first video phones that weighed almost nothing. Of course they had a number of multicolor Nokia 5800 and 6100 that all of my friends used a few years ago. I forgot how much I loved my old Nokia 6820 flip phone that had a full keyboard.  The interesting thing to note about this display of cell phones was how quickly the technology advanced.  Their display only goes back ten to fifteen years!  Therefore, the excitement is really about what comes in the next ten to fifteen years, and will we be laughing and reminiscing over our first touch screen phones?

The folks at Nokia joked with me about my iPhone and showed me their version of a new touch screen phone that is going to be released in a few months.  This devise will compete with both Blackberry and iPhone.  It has both touch-screen and a full keypad functionality (about time someone realized that many of us like both types of functionality).  It sounds and looks great. Nonetheless, I hope the battery life is better than my current devise (and the international data charges are not as confusing).

Nokia is also moving into software development and social networking areas in the days ahead.  Pekka showed me how all of their new devices are connected to a software suite called “Ovi.”  This software will connect GPS mapping to your phone in fun ways so you can easily geo-code your photos, monitor workouts, track your friends music, download or stream music to your phone, play games, and check email! Visit Ovi.com to learn more about this software suite.

Knowing that cell phone reach is far greater than electricity, Nokia is working to improve the lives of their third-world customers.  They are including English language tutorials on their least expensive cell phones and even software that will help farmers in Africa better negotiate crop prices.

I also had an opportunity to meet with Pia Erikinheimo-Mennander and a number of Nokia’s marketing experts.  They are working on evolving Nokia’s online and offline efforts.   They are thinking about how to use mobile devices in social networking gaming and even virtual reality.  My visit to Nokia was both educational and truly inspiring.

Beautiful tree-lined trails…

Fun graffiti artwork (love the counter-culture)…

A small but active synagogue & kosher restaurant…

Easy to use commuter rail (even if you don’t speak Finnish)…

Modern buildings with stylish and organized outdoor advertising…

And karaoke bars…

This city has everything!

These meetings included getting a chance to meet Matti Makkonen’s new firm.  Matti invented SMS, text messaging and has not stopped developing new applications and ways to make cell phones even more interactive.

I also met with Avaus, Finland.  This organization is a business consultant group that specializes in digital & viral communications.  We had an enlightening discussion on word-of-mouth communication and how their group helps Finnish businesses build online communities.  These new media experts are mixing social networking, e-business and mapping technologies in new ways.

I than met some of the founders of Sulake, Finland. This social networking company created and runs  Habbo, a safe virtual community where teenagers can learn to meet new friends and have online social interactions.  We had an honest discussion on the concerns of online safety and the proper way to monitor online communities.  Sulake also built a social network site for photo sharing that combines MySpace/Facebook style comments and blog with Flickr style photo uploading.  Learn more about it at IRC-Galleria.Net.

We had a nice discussion with the folks at Pixelache.  A fun digital multi-media festival that experiments with all types of new digital media.  The name Pixelache is a fun fiiting name that is a digital (pixel) headache!  Check out their website for some cool new ideas atPixelache.ac

We than met with the niche-based social networking site, Muxlim.  Another facinating social networking that I would have never guessed would be based in Helsinki.  Muxlim, concentrates its efforts on young Muslim lifestyle and culture for Muslims that are not based in Muslim countries.  During the campaign, I had great experiences with niche based social networks like BlackPlanet, AsianAve and Disaboom.

It was great to learn about how all of these creators and innovators are seeing the future of online social networks.

Radio Helsinki, a local independent / free-format radio station (that does not use any reporting or playlists) is now working directly with Helsinki’s largest daily newspaper, The Helsingin Sanomat.  This new model is helping both entities build a digital presence and work on additional community projects including more arts and entertainment reporting.

While the newspaper has a huge reach and is already read by a quarter of all Finns, it is slowly evolving its digital presence and currently building new digital studios.  They are working on breaking news and growing their online communities.

We had an interesting discussion on how radio and newspapers can work together and how they both need to grow their digital and mobile phone stratgeies.  These issues are far from figured out in the US media as we are watching organizations like the New York Times and The Washington Post starting to figure out new online video and text messaging strategies.

It was great to see a major newspaper breaking news while working with a fiercely independent radio station that was playing punk rock and hip-hop.  (They were playing NWA and Dead Kennedys while I was there.)

It will be interesting to see how these two very different and independent Finnish organizations grow and work together in the days ahead.

Jyrki 69 is their lead singer and writes most of their lyrics. He is outspoken and greatly enjoys his roll as Goodwill Ambassador  to UNICEF.  He is a great ambassador for them as he represents a different style music than most of their liaisons.  He is also a pro at touring and music since The 69 Eyes have been together for almost 20 years.  While his music, like most Finnish bands, is not directly political or written to be socially aware, he personally has plenty of opinions. Nonetheless, he states clearly,  ”We are rockers first.” and wants to keep the mystery and excitement of his music completely separate.

So we spent our time talking about his ability to work as a national ambassador to this non-profit organization and still maintain his band’s unique identity.  He was very clear that he does his UNICEF work in his free time.  But he did say that none of his fans have taken offense to him doing this type of work and he has met several fans that have mentioned UNICEF to him at a show or a club.  UNICEF works during the day works well since being in a Vampire Goth Rock Metal band you are “Dead until its Dark Out.”  Jyrki explained that he spent some of his time in the “off hours”on UNICEF trips to Africa.

Jyrki has a masters degree in Analytical Chemistry and is well read on a number of subjects including political history.   He is currently spending a a lot of time in the United States and was excited to learn that I worked on the Rock Against Bush CD set with Fat Wreck Chords back in 2004.  He even let me know that he watched the educational video shorts while on his tour bus.

He was a great guy to spend time talking with about music’s roll in society and culture.  While he sees his music as completely separate from his political viewpoints, I quickly learned how well versed he was on a number of current event topics as we discussed Obama’s recent visit to Europe.

On a side note: Jyrki loves the mystery of the music and art around his brand of Vampire/Goth/Glam Rock.  He has an interesting passion for comics and 80’s movies.  Let’s be honest, who doesn’t love adventure movies like The Goonies and The Lost Boys?

The 69 Eyes are now heading off to Los Angeles to finish production on their next record.  And with a new area of politics taking place in the US, he believes America may also be ready for a different type of rock and roll.

It was a balmy 40 degree kind of day and you could still see ice around the Baltic Sea.  I was given two different towels - a little square to sit on and a regular size towel showering and told to go change.  The rest is history!

We first started in the warm sauna and discussed the sauna culture and many Finish traditions in this small wooden room that had very easy heat.   The rooms we went to after were all progressively hotter and were heated up to over 300 degree Fahrenheit (150 Celsius). Most of the rooms are heated by wooden stoves and than each room gets to add their own ladles of water to whatever the desired amount of steam is.  (I could only handle one or two ladles of steam at a time)  After you cook your self to the point that your skin is bright red, your sinuses are cleared, and you are only breathing steam… its time to jump into the frozen Baltic Sea.

I will never forget walking out this narrow wooden foot path from the sauna to the sea.  It was awakening and revitalizing.  After going from the sauna to the sea.  We sat around a giant fireplace and drank a few beverages and talked with some others for a half hour or so while sweating some more!

With a country of over 5 million people it is rumored that Finland has over 3 million saunas.  A great way of heating up a room, cleaning and exfoliating your skin, talking with your neighbors, and relaxing during the cold months of a long winter.  Most Finnish people were literally born in the sauna and have grown up with this tradition ever since.  I learned that just about every modern apartment and condo complex comes with a sauna! This tradition is for both Finish men and women and does not matter your income level – In Finland, you are using the sauna!

Thanks to the guys who took me to the sauna. It was an honor to experience this part of Finnish culture first hand with some great friends that understood my Western fears of hypothermia as well as my “rookie” threshold to the five or six ladles of steam in the hottest room.  I was glad I got to experience each room, but know I have a few more years before I am really ready to handle the hottest room in Helsinki.

For more info on the Finish Sauna Society and the sauna culture visit their website here.