The framework of the Päijät-Häme Sport, Experiences, and Well-being Road Map 2030

ABSTRACT

An inductive, qualitative content approach and participating co-creation were used to establish the Road Map for Sport, Experiences, and Well-being 2030 framework for the Päijät-Häme region of Finland. The themes of development are: With the development of conditions and infrastructure towards versatile and accessible actions; With digitalization towards effective accessibility; With the shared brand message towards an excellent customer experience; and With strong expertise towards seamless cooperation. The framework illustrates business development, sustainable solutions, dissemination and internationalization as cross-cutting perspectives. Furthermore, it provides regional guidelines for long-term collaborative development work; the identification of new synergies; the development of the sport, tourism and well-being business; and the strengthening of systematic and experimental innovation. It is a comprehensive regional plan for social interaction, and political–administrative decision-making and practice in Päijät-Häme. The framework can be used in other regions in a cross-administrative way to identify the specific characteristics of a region, highlight competitive advantages and outline the excellence of stakeholders.

KEYWORDS:

• Smart Specialisation
• regional innovative capacity
• competitiveness
• business development
• digitalization
• cooperation
• sustainable solutions
• internationalization

INTRODUCTION

This paper presents a comprehensive and multidimensional spatial visualization of the framework of the Päijät-Häme Sport, Experiences, and Well-being Road Map 2030. Based on the Smart Specialization Strategy (RIS3) this co-designed graphic identifies the future growth areas and strengths of the Päijät-Häme region of Finland in sub-areas such as sports, physical activity, well-being, tourism, culture and experiences.

RIS3 is a regional development strategy initiated by the European Union to improve the competitiveness of its member countries and regions (Srivastava, 2020). The core idea is that each region discovers and identifies the research and innovation domains that entail the most potential for a region to excel (Lopes et al., 2019). Thus, RIS3 strategies vary with regional conditions and it has been defined by the European Commission (2020) as ‘a place-based approach characterized by the identification of strategic areas for intervention based both on the analysis of the strengths and potential of the economy and on an Entrepreneurial Discovery Process with wide stakeholder involvement’. It is an evolution of regional innovation systems that brings together businesses, higher education institutes and local authorities to cooperate in prioritizing targeted research and innovation investment in the region (Lopes et al., 2019). RIS3 is a combination of industrial, innovation and education policies that advises to identify and choose a restricted number of areas to prioritize for knowledge-based investments. Its goal is to focus on the strengths and comparative advantage (Srivastava, 2020).

The research question of this study was expressed as follows: How can the framework of the Päijät-Häme Sport, Experiences, and Well-being Road Map 2030 be visualized and what does it look like?

THE PÄIJÄT-HÄME REGION

As Päijät-Häme region, and especially the city of Lahti, is renowned for winter sport and excellent sport facilities. Sports and experiences has been one of the RIS3 priorities in Päijät-Häme since 2018 (The Regional Council of Päijät-Häme, 2017). It combines several sub-areas, such as sports, physical activity, well-being, tourism, culture and experiences. Each approach stems from various regional strategies and policy documents. The goal of the Päijät-Häme region is to strengthen the tourism and well-being industry through place-based policy work and partnerships. To do so, a quadruple helix collaboration is necessary to bring together public authorities, academia, industry, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and citizens to create a vision and road map for the development activities for the coming years.

Päijät-Häme offers an internationally interesting operating environment for the development of smart and sustainable solutions and business. There are two sport, experiences and well-being-related statements in the Lahti City Strategy 2030 ( n.d. ):

We will create new jobs by offering the city as a development platform for businesses, and increase cooperation in the area in the top themes of innovation activities (environment, design, digitalization and sports), and we will strengthen the sport, culture and event offering in Lahti.

METHODS AND TECHNICAL EXECUTION

The development process of the graphic involved several iterations. To define Vision 2030, and the development themes and their goals, multiple methods to include the stakeholders were used: two push-to-web online questionnaires (n = 817), five thematic group interviews (n = 16) and two workshops (n = 61). In addition, the feedback of the definitions of themes was collected from citizens (n = 88). A review of several background strategies and programmes was implemented, and five regions were benchmarked to outline the cross-cutting perspectives. In addition, the global future scenarios were regarded in a regional road map context with the cooperation of the scenario specialists (n = 2). Inductive qualitative content approach and participating co-creation with the online virtual ‘bulletin’ board (Padlet) were used to establish the framework by the project group (n = 6) and evolved with two graphic designers. The graphic was made by the industry-standard vector graphics Adobe Illustrator^® software.

THE FRAMEWORK OF THE ROAD MAP 2030

The framework of the Päijät-Häme Sport, Experiences, and Well-being Road Map 2030 (Figure 1) implicates the expectations and regional guidelines for long-term collaborative development work; the identification of new synergies; the development of the sport, tourism and well-being business; and the strengthening of systematic and experimental innovation.

Figure 1. The framework of the Päijät-Häme Sport, Experiences, and Well-being Road Map 2030.

In the centre of the graphic is the Vision (‘Päijät-Häme is an attractive and internationally interesting competence hub and innovator of sport, experiences and well-being’). Each of the four coloured rectangles represents one of the development themes, which is connected to its description and goal with the matched coloured lever. The initiatives of the themes are presented in Table 1.

Table 1. The initiatives of the Road Map for Sport, Experiences, and Well-being 2030 in the Päijät-Häme region of Finland.

Theme	With the development of conditions and infrastructure towards versatile and accessible actions	With digitalization towards effective accessibility	With the shared brand message towards an excellent customer experience	With strong expertise towards seamless cooperation
Initiatives	Reviewing facilities and places and enabling their usability	Reviewing and utilizing digital environments	Creating a vision by utilizing attraction factors and trends	Reviewing the know-how and operations of organizations
	Reviewing and developing natural attractions	Creating a shared digital platform	Reviewing customer needs and recognizing growth potential	Building cooperation networks
	Utilizing water areas	Improving the availability of information and digital competence	Building a shared brand message	Deepening the cooperation between different educational levels
	Identifying user and customer groups	Developing the prerequisites for innovations and commercialization	Visibility of marketing communication at different levels	Utilizing networks in project and research operations
	Creating a communication channel	Data collection and knowledge management	Developing service packages	Networks as promoters of business
	Supporting business			Utilizing and supporting student potential

The stakeholders of the Road Map 2030 include actors from public sector, business, educational and development organizations, and civic society. To keep the graphic applicable in use, the numerous actions and identified parties were introduced on the open-access digital platform of the Road Map 2030.¹ The schedule and the responsible parties of each actions can be found on the platform from pages 4–17. At the moment, the contact information of regional actors is presented in the Finnish version the Road Map 2030.² The framework of Road Map 2030 takes into account the European research, development and innovation networks, for example, The European Platform of Sport Innovation (EPSI). In addition, the four cross-cutting perspectives of the framework, such as business promotion, sustainable solutions, communication and internationalization, are illustrated in the larger rectangle surrounding the themes.

CONCLUSIONS

This study and the co-designed graphic illustrate a comprehensive regional framework for social interaction, political–administrative decision-making and practice of sports, experience and well-being in Päijät-Häme, Finland. The research and graphic process can be utilized in other regions in a cross-administrative way to identify the specific characteristics of each region, highlight competitive advantages and outline a future perspective based on the excellence of regional stakeholders. To sum up, the framework of Road Map 2030 reconciles the vertical priorities of promoting and managing sport, tourism and well-being, incorporates dynamism, and combines the needs of local people with multidisciplinary expertise.

Overall, to distil the composition of key elements, and to visualize them clearly in an understandable way in one extensive and multidisciplinary graphic was challenging. To progress, the usability and added value of the Road Map 2030 will be assessed and updated regularly. The governance and management of the Smart Specialization Strategy in Päijät-Häme belongs to the Regional Council of Päijät-Häme, and the mandate to coordinate the regional cooperation between stakeholders related in the RIS3 priority of sports and experiences has been given to LAB University of Applied Sciences with the close collaboration of Lahti Region Development LADEC Ltd and all regional municipalities. The good conditions, know-how and geographical location of Päijät-Häme provide the basis for the versatile development of the region in the fields of sports, physical activity, well-being, tourism, culture and experiences.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by ‘Sustainable growth and jobs 2014 - 2020 - Finland's structural funds programme’, approved by the European Commission (https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/atlas/programmes/2014-2020/finland/2014fi16m2op001). The managing authority was Finnish Ministry of Employment and the Economy [grant number EURA 2014/9231/09 02 01 01/2019/UML].

Notes

1 See https://indd.adobe.com/view/b5a222ff-7af9-4964-b778-cbf528a00798/.

2 See https://indd.adobe.com/view/03ac6b57-af1d-4dae-a476-5e5796c30ee5, pp. 2-5.