At the start of this year Forum Virium Helsinki once again asked its members and closest partners to rate its operations in 2014. A clear majority of respondents were happy with their cooperation with Forum Virium Helsinki. Satisfaction in projection cooperation had increased, while communication and events were also given high scores.
”We conduct our partner research every year and treat it as an important feedback channel for developing our operations. Cooperation with Forum Virium Helsinki is primarily seen as fruitful: for example satisfaction in project cooperation has increased from 2013,” says Communications and Development Director Pauliina Smeds.
Valuable projects, with Smart City and open data as top themes
The majority of respondents, 85% (88% in 2013), felt that cooperation with Forum Virium Helsinki was valuable to their organization. 12% of respondents held a critical view.
62% respondents were either satisfied or very satisfied with the projects in which they took part, up 16 percentage points from the year before. 26% (33% last year) were somewhat satisfied, 6% were dissatisfied and 6% had not participated in a project.
Smart City was rated as an interesting project theme by the largest number of respondents (79%), exactly the same percentage as last year. Open data came second with 68%. Other themes the respondents found interesting included smart traffic, user led innovation and growth companies.
As in past surveys, fast, agile and pragmatic pilot projects and experiments were seen as highly important, along with public-private sector cooperation projects. Interest in cooperation projects of large and small companies had increased from last year. 41% rated the theme as highly important, compared to 21% in 2013.
The respondents rated the City of Helsinki and other public sector actors as the most important of Forum Virium Helsinki’s stakeholders for cooperation. Small companies were ranked second in importance. Citizens, considered as highly important by 26% respondents (50% last year), were seen as the third most important group of stakeholders.
In terms of Forum Virium Helsinki’s operations, project cooperation was regarded as significantly more important than last year, but networking was also valued clearly higher than in the previous survey. Gaining new knowledge and skills, on the other hand, was considered less important than before.
Satisfaction in communication and events
Respondents also expressed satisfaction with Forum Virium Helsinki’s events and communication. 73% were either very satisfied or satisfied with events, while 24% were somewhat satisfied. Similarly to last year, the most effective communication channels according to the survey were face-to-face meetings, newsletters, websites and events.
76% respondents were either very satisfied or satisfied with the frequency of communication. As for communications in general, 68% were very satisfied or satisfied and 26% were somewhat satisfied. 3% respondents were dissatisfied, down from 4% in 2013. Event attendance was slightly higher according to the survey, with every single respondent having attended a Forum Virium Helsinki event in the last year (in 2013 4% had not attended an event).
This was the fourth time the yearly partner survey was conducted in the same format. 56% respondents were from the public sector and 44% from companies.
Open-ended responses within the survey commended cooperation with Forum Virium Helsinki and expressed a wish to lower the threshold for start-ups and other agile companies to participate in project cooperation.
Warmest thanks to everyone who took part! Our 2015 partner survey will be conducted in early 2016.
For more information, please contact:
Pauliina Smeds
Communications and Development Director
pauliina.smeds(at)forumvirium.fi
Tel. +358 40 717 3269