Working together is the only way to best results: case Critical Communications World 2024

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is renowned for its impressive skyline, warm winter climate, and its reputation of doing things better and bigger than anybody else. Despite being a relatively young nation, the UAE boasts world-class infrastructure and a strategic vision to evolve into a global technological hub. This dynamic environment offers vast opportunities for international companies across various sectors. However, tapping into this market requires patience, dedication, a deep understanding of the local landscape, and strong networks – resources that smaller companies may struggle to muster on their own.

So how can this be effectively accomplished with limited resources? Business Finland aims to empower Finnish companies to thrive in international markets. Let's explore a real-life case study to illustrate our approach.

Seizing opportunities at Critical Communications World 2024

From May 14-16, 2024, Dubai hosted the Critical Communications World (CCW) exhibition, the largest event in the industry dedicated to mission-critical and business-critical communication users and suppliers. This year's event, TCCA, the global industry association in the sector, supported by Dubai's critical communications network operator NEDAA, offered a prime opportunity for industry leaders to share expertise, connect with peers, discuss emerging trends, and showcase cutting-edge technologies.

Finland is recognized globally for its leading ecosystem in critical communications and its unique experience in fostering collaboration among different authorities.

This expertise is highly valued and sought after. Critical Communications Finland (CCF) spearheaded the Finnish presence at the exhibition by organizing a nearly 18 months program which culminated into a country pavilion with associated meetings and presentations in the event.

Business Finland partnered with CCF. Our collaboration for this event began in early 2023. As part of the preparations, the Digital Trust program, led by Kirsi Kokko, teamed up with our Dubai office and a consulting company to conduct a stakeholder mapping exercise. This initiative aimed to gather targeted market intelligence of the key players, their projects, and form contacts for potential Finnish companies in the UAE.

Digital Gulf Export Booster: A catalyst for success

In January 2024, Business Finland with the support of CCF hosted an online event to share the results of the stakeholder mapping with interested Finnish companies, providing them with insights on the projects and market needs and understanding on business conduct in the Gulf region. Recognizing that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of Finland's economy and may lack the resources to tackle challenging overseas markets alone, we launched targeted support initiative Digital Gulf Export Booster for UAE, led by Victoria Ivanova, in collaboration with the Business Finland ICT Global Industry Leadership team (GILT) led by Perry Le Dain.

This booster program aims to help Finnish digitalization ecosystems maximize their impact in the market. One of the focus areas of the Digital Gulf is public safety and critical communications. In March, we organized a follow-up workshop and training session for companies interested in critical communications business in the UAE. Four Finnish companies participating in the CCW formed a cluster and spent the following month creating unified materials and messages to present at the exhibition.

Bridging connections and cultivating leads

Ahead of the exhibition, we arranged online introductory sessions with six key local stakeholders for the 12 participating Finnish companies. These sessions laid the groundwork for productive in-person meetings during the exhibition, leading to numerous business leads.

During CCW, we hosted two networking receptions in collaboration with the Embassy of Finland, graciously hosted by Ambassador Tuula Yrjölä. These events provided additional opportunities for Finnish companies to network and establish valuable contacts.

The combined efforts of Business Finland, the Finnish Embassy and CCF are anticipated to generate significant impacts for the participating Finnish companies.

Now, the focus has shifted to follow-up actions to capitalize on the generated leads and feedback from the exhibition, which has been overwhelmingly positive. In parallel the cooperation continues in preparation for the Critical Communications World 2025 taking place in Brussels, Belgium on 17-19th June 2025.

This case demonstrates how targeted, collaborative efforts can help Finnish SMEs navigate and succeed in complex international markets, even with limited resources.

Interested in making global growth business in digital security? Read more about Business Finland's Digital Resilience program.

This blog was co-written with Tero Pesonen from Critical Communications Finland.