Krea Spring School 2022 – Digital Storytelling for Wonderful Loviisa

During 31 March–20 May 2022, a multidisciplinary and multicultural crew of 40 students and more than 15 teachers from 14 European universities took part in Krea Spring School - Inspirational Storytelling, a blended course organized annually by Haaga-Helia’s Creative Agency Krea. The course project was to produce digital storytelling for sustainable travel in collaboration with a Finnish small town, Loviisa.

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Driving sustainable changes through digital storytelling

The aim of the Krea Spring School 2022 project was to raise awareness of local services and unique attractions provided by off-the-beaten-track destinations such as Loviisa. During the project, students, teachers, and tourism and services industry partners engaged in RDI collaboration to co-create digital storytelling aimed at promoting sustainable changes in living, travel, and consumption.

During a series of online workshops and an in-person intensive week in Helsinki, Krea Spring School students carried out target audience research, paid an unforgettable trip to springtime Loviisa, and co-created digital stories of Loviisa’s sustainable services and local delights. The stories are being published little by little through @ihanaloviisa Instagram account.

Added value from international collaboration, research and co-creation

The project was carried out in seven multicultural virtual and in-person teams of 5-7 students. The participants came from European universities in Finland, Hungary, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Portugal, Slovakia, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Georgia, Germany, and Austria.

This year, our Krea Spring School collaboration between universities, businesses, and non-profit organizations was integrated with two Erasmus+ funded RDI projects, Learn to Change and CORALL. Supported by these RDI initiatives and building on their multidisciplinary research into sustainability and multi-stakeholder co-creation, Krea Spring School participants developed competencies in collaborative autonomous learning, multicultural teamwork using English as a lingua franca, university-industry co-creation, digital storytelling, and sustainable development.

Krea Spring School - creative work that pays off

Based on feedback, the course and the intensive week in Helsinki greatly exceeded all expectations. According to Loviisa’s representative Camilla Stenvall, students’ digital stories were so wonderful and touching they made her cry. For students, Krea Spring School 2022 was hard work, but also a lot of fun and a unique experience. As one student put it, “I would definitely recommend it. You got to know the lovely town of Loviisa and you met so many people from different backgrounds and worked with them on a project. I think that's an opportunity you shouldn't miss!”

We would like to thank the Town of Loviisa for hospitality and friendliness, and we are grateful for the enjoyable collaboration between students and teachers from Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences, Budapest Business School, Thomas More University of Applied Sciences, Polytechnic of Guarda, Polytechnic Institute of Castelo Branco, University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague, University of Economics in Bratislava, Saxion University of Applied Sciences,  Georgian Institute of Public Relations, ESB Business School Reutlingen, University of Montpellier, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, FH Wien WKW, and Berliner Hochschule Für Technik (BHT).

Contact
Tanja
Vesala-Varttala
yliopettaja
Principal Lecturer
+358 294471568
tanja.vesala-varttala@haaga-helia.fi