“Creativity grows by sharing! We want to share joy, inspiration and contacts to everyone who walks in”,  says Johanna Vanttaja, the host and producer of CreativeMornings/Helsinki.

Johanna is standing in the middle of the Helsinki Design Museum lobby, greeting people, visibly enjoying the sight of about a hundred Helsinki based creative professionals and artists chatting away around her, sipping coffee, and enjoying their free vegan breakfast. 

It’s 8am on a Friday morning, but the house is full. In half an hour Milla Kokko, from Aalto University’s Radical Creatives project, will start her talk.

Finding your creative community in Helsinki

“Creative work can be lonely. Here you are fed by a whole community – literally, socially and creatively”, says Johanna. She has been running CreativeMornings Helsinki as a volunteer for 9 years. 

The event is part of a global network of currently 244 cities, in 70 countries, organizing their own CreativeMornings once a month, every month, for free. All cities share the same monthly theme, and invite a creative speaker to give their take on it. 

The talks are always in English, and the monthly events bring together Helsinkians from about 20 different nationalities every time. The event is organised by a team of volunteers – also creative professionals from all corners of the world. 

“The founder of the CreativeMornings, Tina Ruth Eisenberg, who started the concept in  New York, describes this as an “engine of generosity”, and I think it summarises this pretty well”, says Johanna.

“Here you feel you belong”

As you arrive at the event, it’s indeed easy to see what the CreativeMornings motto “everyone’s welcome, everyone’s creative” means in practice. At the door you’re greeted by the team and given a little nametag to sign. After that it takes hardly a couple of seconds to find yourself already talking to someone.

Free breakfast is a treat, but clearly the secret of the event is how it caters for the soul. 
“What I love about this, is that it’s not just “networking”, but offers genuine human connection”, says Itzel Ruiz, Learning and Development Specialist from Mexico, who has been volunteering in the CM team for two years. “Here you can really see how diversity works, when we care for each other. Here’s energy, dynamic encounters and talks, but above all here you feel like you belong.”

Chill, be inspired, make friends – it’s as easy as this

The Design Museum has offered a home for CreativeMornings/Helsinki since it started 10 years ago. “There was a clear need for this kind of curious and open platform. There’s no pressure to mingle, you can just chill and be inspired by the talk or talk to anyone and make friends. I’ve met a lot of people who have moved to Helsinki from abroad and built connections here, both personal and work related” says Piia Lehtinen, Head of Collaboration at the Design Museum.

Game developer Liang Guang and his partner, Commercial Operations Expert Eric Shao are in a middle of a lively conversation with Community Educator Maaria Tukiainen.

“These mornings offer new inspirations and knowledge from storytellers”, says Liang who comes to the event every month. “I’m a creator myself and here I can meet people with shared viewpoints and find a supportive community.” 

“As this is in English, it’s easier for many immigrants to meet other people, to make themselves at home. I recommend this to international talent. To creators. To my Finnish language teacher!”, adds Eric and laughs.

Maaria has been coming to the event already for ten years. “This is especially great in the winter”, she says. “Then people don’t really move out so much, but here it’s a full house at least once a month!” 

“Yes, this is a real friend reunion once a month!”, confirms Liang.

The monthly themes of the talks vary from Cycle to Roots or from Vision to Reflection, and are always chosen by one of the cities in the global network. It’s up to the local CreativeMornings host and team to interpret them as they see suitable for their own local creative community. The CreativeMornings Helsinki team has put a lot of effort into attracting and inviting a wide range of speakers, from various walks of creativity, from more mainstream to underground. 

“I think that’s unique about our approach here in Helsinki. Just these recent months we’ve had Ali al Safu, an upcoming filmmaker, Evans Andrew, a poet and community activist, Unni Pulliainen, an ant researcher, Minae Tani-LaFleur, a food entrepreneur, and today Milla Kokko from Aalto University’s radical creativity project”, explains Johanna. 

Indeed, when flicking through the social media feed of CreativeMornings Helsinki you can find an inspiring range of speakers from art, film, architecture, poetry, science, creative business, community building, cultural heritage, healing arts and music – you name it – opening the secrets of their creativity.

“What connects them all, is a passion for their craft. Courage to do their own thing, community building, sharing and authenticity, vulnerability. They all have that one thing in the heart of their creativity that they want to share with others. Everyone can find something that connects with their core”.

The chosen recipe clearly works. The CreativeMorning/Helsinki community is growing, and more often than not, every seat in the audience is taken.

Photo Piia Lehtinen (1), all other photos by Noor Sovijärvi