Supply/Experience

Activities

One of Malmö City's values is variety and with this in mind, we work to offer an interesting, relevant and wide range of services to residents and visitors alike. At the same time, structural changes and trends are closely monitored to ensure that the offer is also sustainable.

In 2014, a retail mapping analysis of Malmö City was carried out. Each store within the delimited area was inventoried and assessed on several points, including category affiliation, store ownership structure, price level and market approach (experience factor). The delimitation area was divided and treated in four different zones.

The results provided a snapshot of Malmö City's stores and identified the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and potential threats of the store mix. The same survey was conducted in 2018 and 2022.

The retail mapping shows that at the time of the survey in August/September 2022 there were:

• 95 fashion stores (children, women, men and mixed)
• 8 lingerie shops
• 31 accessories, bags, watches, jewellery
• 16 opticians
• 60 Home decoration, furniture, flower shops, hardware
• 160 in hair and cosmetics incl. pharmacies, hairdressers, spas and skin care centres
• 21 shoe shops
• 5 sports shops
• 4 toy shops
• 18 museum, library, cinema etc
• 34 service, bank, broker, post
• 249 food/drink, of which 208 restaurants/cafés 41 groceries, kiosk etc
• 24 electronics and media, bookshop, music
• 27 others
• 130 vacant premises

In 2014, 933 shops were inventoried, in 2018 909 shops and in 2022 882 shops. This is a decrease of 24 stores in 2014-2018 and a decrease of 27 stores in 2018-2022. The decrease is due to mergers of retail premises and the conversion of premises into e.g. offices.
In 2014-2018, we saw an increase in the number of stores in the categories: Cosmetics/Care/Hair, Entertainment, Food Service, Other and Optics. This trend continued in the period 2018-22.

Photo: Jonas Persson

The biggest decrease in numbers was seen in the categories: Fashion (Children, Men, Woman, Mixed), Shoes and Service.
We see a trend towards more shops where you buy services and fewer shops where you buy products.

The share of local store owners has increased while the share of national chains and international brands has decreased, especially international brands in the period 2018-2022. The average price level of the total range is basically unchanged in the period 2014-2022.

The average market approach has continued to increase across the total range, and the share of stores with a high market approach has increased. The share of stores with a low market approach has remained at a low level since 2018, having fallen sharply from 2014. Given the disappearance of many international brands, this shows that local operators are taking great responsibility and are ambitious with their operations.

All results can be broken down to the respective city area for more detailed analysis of the area in question. In the area work, positionings have been developed in different steps for the different areas. The ones used now are:

• Area 1 (Södra Förstadsgatan): Idyllic city street - genuine, cosy, inspiring
• Area 1-2 (Södertull): Urban & Innovative Neighbourhood - develop, experience, update
• Area 2 (Södergatan and surroundings): Stylish parade street - brave, caring, stylish
• Area 3 (Davidshall): escape from mainstream, unique, handpicked for you
• Area 4 (Gamla Väster, Stortorget, Centralen, Caroli m omnejd): because this area is so large and diverse, it is divided into micro-areas. No in-depth positioning work has been done yet, but now that a new city manager responsible for this area has been appointed, work will begin.

In the establishment work, it can be seen that different actors end up on Södra Förstadsgatan, unique entrepreneurs around Davidshall, premium offerings on Södergatan and innovation at Södertull.

Malmö City's restaurant and café offer is spread throughout the area, but some places are more restaurant-dense than others. Following the success of the restaurant cluster on Lilla torg, which was established in the mid-1990s in co-operation between the city and restaurateurs and is known far beyond Sweden's borders, a couple of new clusters have been established. Firstly, the eastern side of Södertull deliberately evolving into a food destination and now offering food from different parts of the world. In terms of Davidshall the offer has grown more organically and now includes several popular and different eateries. Another local food mecca is Malmö Market Hall which opened its doors in winter 2016. Overall, you can "eat your way around the world" in Malmö City as all the world's food is represented here. Classic meat places, trendy bar hangouts, creative menus for vegetarians and vegans, for those who need to eat quickly or those who want to sit and enjoy for hours - there is something for all tastes and wallets.

In 2023, several new restaurants will open in Malmö to offer even greater diversity - from Mikkeller's noodle and beer bar to a new Scanian restaurant on Lilla torg. Sydsvenskan lists the 19 most interesting, 11 of which are located in the city centre.

For the visitor or Malmö resident who wants to experience something, there is a wide variety on offer, from big shows to small pub quizzes. Or why not a team activity with your friends or colleagues? With venues such as Malmö Opera, Malmö Konsert och Kongress, Malmö Stadsteater (with fantastic rebuilt premises at the historic Hipp, renovated for SEK 110 million and reopening on 24 February), The Alley, Sherlocked, Teamtastic, Boulebar, Inferno Online and more, there is every opportunity to have fun. If you're looking to dance, there's Etage, Privé, Swing Inn and Deep nightclubs, and if you want to sing along, there are several karaoke bars (Moyagi will soon open in the best spot, in the centre of Södertull). The bottom line is that there's something for everyone, regardless of energy level, cultural preference or musical taste. And that's not to mention all the museums and art exhibitions...

Photo: Jonas Persson

For those staying overnight, there are 36 hotels (26 of which are in the city centre) with 5394 hotel rooms to choose from, from the large chain hotels to the more unique small establishments. Both hotels and restaurants, shops and other offerings can be found digitally at malmocity.se, but since many people want an analogue overview of the large supply, there is also a physical supply map. This is updated at least once a year and is available at the hotels and InfoPoints such as Pressbyråerna, but also other businesses that wish to provide this service to their customers.

Establishment work

To help increase the number of jobs, the City of Malmö has made an extra effort to focus on attracting (even) more new business start-ups. The city has hired an external start-up consultant to complement the start-up team at the city's business office. The consultant's task is to identify and qualify companies interested in expanding to Malmö. Life science, gaming, food and retail are the sectors that the assignment primarily focuses on. Dialogue and collaboration also take place with property owners to facilitate efficient and relevant development work on establishments. MCS welcomes entrepreneurs who wish to be shown around the city, receive information about the various areas and visitor statistics.

Events & Activities

Cultural right of public access

Malmö is a young, multicultural city. Culture is the centrepiece of life in the city and there is a cultural commons here. Since diversity characterises Malmö, it is important that the city and its culture are a concern for everyone - Malmö residents and visitors alike. Eight municipal cultural institutions are located in the city centre - the City Library, the City Archives, Malmö Museums (including Teknikens and Sjöfartens hus), Malmö Art Museum, Malmö Culture School, Malmö City Theatre, Malmö Opera and Malmö Konsthall. In addition to these, there is of course a large number of actors in the private and non-profit cultural sector. The co-operation between many of these actors is crucial to Malmö's cultural position. One important aspect is that culture, and the encounters that arise through culture, are also present in the public space, in the city's streets, parks and squares.

Malmö Summer Stage

Malmö Sommarscen is a series of cultural events that take place over six weeks every summer, with over a hundred events at between 30 and 50 venues throughout the city. With its wide range of content, Malmö residents and visitors can enjoy everything from concerts with international artists to contemporary circus performances, sing-along evenings and dance performances. All events are free. The 2022 Summer Scene was extremely well attended, with 69,000 visitors, which is close to the record from 2019 when 76,000 visited the Summer Scene programme. In 2022, a special effort was made to reach a younger audience. The concept Young Malmö Summer Scene was launched, where young people between the ages of 17-22 had to produce various events-for young people and with young people. Sommarscen works a lot with dialogue with Malmö residents in the development of the programme. For the concept Young Malmö Summer Scene six young Malmö residents were hired and trained as producers to create events for and with young people.

Photo: Werner Nystrand

Sun & sea

Sun & Sea is a critically acclaimed Lithuanian opera performance, awarded the Golden Lion as the best entry at the Venice Biennale. The work took place over 12 days at Malmö Konsthall in 2021, with more than 21,000 visitors taking part in the work, which raised questions about the sea, the ecosystem and the climate, and was performed by opera singers and volunteers on an artificial beach inside Malmö Konsthall. An educational programme for both schools and the general public complemented the work and allowed Malmö residents of different ages to discuss and process issues of sustainability and climate through information, discussions and creative activities. Sun & Sea was realised in collaboration with Malmö Libraries with support from the Sweden-Lithuania Cooperation Fund, the Swedish Arts Council, the Nordic Culture Fund and the Malmö Beautification and Planting Association.

Malmö Festival
In January 2023, Malmöfestivalen received the award for the best live event of 2022 at the Sweden Live Music Conference.

The justification was:
 "This year's event is one that recognises the cosmopolitan nature of its city and makes it its mission to reflect its multicultural, diverse population. Regardless of class, ethnic background or sexual orientation, here is a meeting place that is as accessible as it is welcoming. Completely free of charge in the centre of the city for eight days."

The Malmö Festival is one of the world's most sustainable festivals, in terms of equal opportunities for artists and environmental work.

• All electricity consumed comes from solar, wind and water.
• Plastic ban, meaning food sellers cannot use disposable materials made of plastic, market sellers cannot have plastic bags.
• All waste from vendors is sorted.
• Tap water is available (free of charge) at several locations on the festival site, no bottled still water is available for sale.
• All food vendors must stock organic and fair trade coffee and tea, organic sugar, milk, chicken and eggs. Seafood from overfished stocks cannot be sold.

For example, during the 2022 festival, 243 kg of food (from around 400 000 portions sold) was saved from going to waste. The 2022 line-up consisted of 38 % male, 20 % mixed and 42 % female artists.

The Malmö Festival has been a tradition in Malmö since the 1980s and the festival has many visitors every year. In 2022, the record was broken with 1.5 million visits in eight days. SEK 258 million was spent by tourists, giving SEK 10 of every tax krona invested back to Malmö's business community. 59% of Malmö Festival visitors come from Malmö. 7% come from abroad and 28% come from other cities in Skåne. 6 % come from other cities outside Skåne. The most common means of transport to the festival is still public transport, but slightly more people say they will choose the bicycle in 2022.

Read more here. https://www.malmofestivalen.se/hem

Photo: Pierre Ekman

International author scene

The City Library's International Authors' Stage has been bringing world literature to Malmö since 2009. Approximately 8 times a year, current authors from all over the world are invited to the Author Stage for in-depth discussions.
Examples of writers who visited the International Writers' Stage during the period are: Ai Weiwei and Yang Lian, Michael Ondaatje, Jonathan Franzen, Marie Darrieussecq, Kjell Westö and Karin Smirnoff. The International Writers' Stage is often organised in collaboration with the publisher of the author in question. This means different publishing partnerships for each event.

World Pride

Copenhagen Pride, with the support of the Municipality of Copenhagen, the City of Malmö (STK-2017-390) and Region Skåne, was awarded the hosting of WorldPride 2021. Other major contributors were Malmö Pride and Happy Copenhagen. Malmö residents and visitors were able to take part in a wide range of events such as seminars, films, performing arts, music and exhibitions. Malmö Citysamverkan contributed to the event and materials were produced to publicise, inform and spread knowledge about the event. Stickers, pins, flags and an information sheet were created and distributed to organisations in the city before World Pride started. The material was dressed in the Progress flag, together with the Malmö City logo and the text #YouAreIncluded. Prior to the event, area-based meetings were held with Malmö Pride and the organisations to discuss what each could do to adapt to their sector and activities. Good examples of initiatives, programmes, a common set of materials and other valuable information were collected in the information sheet that went out to members. During World Pride itself, social media was continuously updated with programme items and important and fun events during the week, such as performances and the parade through the city.

Nature meets the city

In the spring of 2022, Malmö Citysamverkan collaborated with Malmö Museums and brought a fabulous exhibition produced by Föreningen Naturfotograferna to Malmö. The exhibition consisted of eighteen illuminated images of winners and losers in Swedish nature. The opening ceremony focused on nature, with children's choirs and speeches by biologist Staffan Åkeby and others. During the six-week exhibition period, regular guided tours were organised, where visitors could learn about the state of Swedish nature. The frames of the exhibition were specially designed not to distract from the beautiful pictures. During a weekend in September, the City of Malmö also organised a nature festival in the centre of Malmö for the first time. Various outdoor activities were organised, such as canoeing, bird watching, mushroom cultivation and fishing. All with the aim of showing that nature is also close to us, even in the centre of Malmö.

Malmö Garden Show

In 2011, the Malmö Garden Show was held for the first time in the Palace Garden and on Mölleplatsen so that Malmö residents could have their very own Chelsea Flower Show. Since then, interest in gardening and cultivation has increased exponentially, not least during the pandemic, and we expect this to continue. The event was held in 2022 over three days, with free admission and consisted of exhibition gardens, a garden market, food court, activities for children, lectures, culture and art. There was a strong focus on sustainability, biodiversity and co-operation with the entire horticultural industry in Skåne. The aim was to continue to spread the joy of gardening and growing for the people of Malmö and for the whole of Skåne. Through this event, a social platform was created for visitors who are largely gardening and growing enthusiasts without much experience.

Photo: Monkey eye

Malmö Garden Show was a well-attended event with many happy visitors from all over Skåne. There was plenty to do for both young and old and the exhibitors have been very satisfied in their evaluations. Malmö Garden Show stands for public education and inspiration and achieved the following Agenda30 goals:

• 3: Good health and well-being
• 11: Sustainable cities and communities
• 15: Ecosystems and biodiversity

Collaboration was made with associations for activities for older children at the "Climate Square", theatre groups for the entertainment for the youngest visitors at "Wonderland", local musicians as well as both small and large private actors in the gardening industry but also actors such as VASYD to create this event.

International Food Festival

Back in 2007, Malmö was looking for the best outdoor market organiser in Europe. In our search, we came into contact with the acclaimed Geraud Markets, who organised their first international market in Malmö in 2008. Since then, they have visited us annually and contributed to the city centre's public life. The concept has spread to many other Swedish cities and is now more food-centred than it was originally. The International Food Festival always leaves a clear mark on visitor statistics. It is usually one of the weeks of the year when we have the most visitors on the pedestrianised streets. Malmö Citysamverkan strengthens the event with its own fringe events. This year we're calling it "Spring Acid" and expect new visitor records.

Photo: Jonas Persson

Davidshall Autumn Festival

On the same weekend as the Design and Craft Market and Gallery Night, the businesses around Davidshall have been open in the evening, offering drinks and snacks. Sometimes they have collaborated with local artists who have hung their work on the premises. The event has been called Autumn festival at Davidshall. To attract the attention of the many people who will be out and about during this time, Malmö City has created Facebook events, posters and shared the information on social media to promote the event.

Design and crafts market

A recurring market on Lilla torg with around 50 exhibitors during the last weekend in September in connection with Malmö Gallerinatt. It has been organised for almost 20 years in collaboration with Ylva Ronander, an enthusiastic member of Malmö's industrial association. The market has been greatly appreciated by visitors, but also by the restaurants in and around the square, as many of the approximately 5,000 market visitors take the opportunity to make a restaurant/café visit. Collaboration has also taken place with a nearby café for coffee and a break area for exhibitors. During the pandemic year 2020, the physical market could not be realised, which led to two new initiatives in a shop environment instead, with a design and art theme. The first was a round of tips displayed in the shop windows of stores operating in the design/art sector. This was done in collaboration with 10 shops, with member Olsson & Gerthel also sponsoring a design object as a prize. The second initiative consisted of an Instagram competition where followers were engaged by tagging Malmö Citysamverkan in their best self-shot Malmö City picture. A jury selected five winning images and these were printed on canvas and hung in member organisations during Gallery Week with a descriptive text of the work and photographer. The photographers were then allowed to collect their work from the organisations and keep it.

Halloween

In October 2022, Malmö Citysamverkan organised a Halloween event at Triangeltorget. The event's target group was mainly families with children. The aim was to get visitors to move around the city centre throughout the day by not keeping people in the event area for too long. The set-up was five stations with activities where visitors could come and go as they pleased throughout the day. The dance academy manned a scary ghost tunnel and did a flash mob once an hour in the Thriller theme. The Culture School had a workshop where children learnt how to make realistic wounds. Art Magine was booked for face painting and balloon animals. City businesses contributed to the event in various ways. Ceramic and me and Allt om Cupcakes were on the square, where children could paint ceramic pumpkins and make sugarpaste. At Lush you could make bath bombs (which 60 visitors did), Konditori Katarina invited all children with face painting on Chocolate Bats and Lakritsroten handed out samples. Everything at the event was free and the visitors gave a very nice response, several expressed wishes to extend the event for more days.

Photo: Jonas Persson

Winter Games

Between 29 December 2021 and 9 January 2022, the City of Malmö held the Winter Games Christmas initiative at Stortorget in Malmö. During the Winter Games, visitors had the opportunity to try different types of gaming activities with a mix of classic and new games, physical and social activities. Everything was free for visitors. The Winter Games were held for the first time in 2018, with around 55,000 visitors. It was also held in 2019, as well as in 2021. With the restrictions in place at the time due to the Covid pandemic, the aim was to create an infection-proof event for the 2021 Winter Games.

The event was continuously adapted to be infection-proof and comply with the Public Health Agency of Sweden's recommendations and restrictions.With additional restrictions following from 23 December, further adjustments were made where the number of visitors was limited to a maximum of 100 people at a time. Free tickets were booked in advance where visitors were allowed 45 minutes in the tent before new visitors could be admitted.

Photo: Ali Jehad

Winter in the city

Winter and Christmas in the City is a tradition in central Malmö. Gustav Adolfs torg has been home to the event for several years. The event has changed shape, size and focus over the years. From 2015, the City of Malmö has focused on creating an event that also attracts Malmö residents who do not celebrate Christmas. Christmas in the City thus became Winter in the City in 2016, and the event still bears that name. As a result, the content has become less Christmassy and more wintry.

In 2020, extra light was created in the winter darkness. Between 28 November 2020 and 3 January 2021, Malmö residents could enjoy light art, installations and decorations in the city centre. On a route along the pedestrian street from Triangeltorget to Gustav Adolfs torg and Stortorget, the city was illuminated by viewing cabinets, video art on building facades and exciting lighting. Some of Skåne's leading lighting designers, video artists, set designers, artists and modellers were behind the visual experiences. It was a playful and surprising world where you could stop and dream away for a while!
As 2020 was a year characterised by the coronavirus, Winter in the City was adapted accordingly. Instead of specific programme items that were timed and gathered the audience at a certain time, the event consisted of visual experiences spread over a large area. There was decoration and design that could be seen for most of the day. There were also city hosts along the route who ensured that there was no crowding at the various viewing booths and light installations.
In 2022, a slightly smaller version of Winter in the City was organised, including a traditional opening ceremony with the lighting of the city's Christmas and winter lights, the crowning of Lucia, Lucia singing, speeches and a brass band. The initiative is a collaboration between the City of Malmö and Malmö Citysamverkan.

Malmö City Christmas Market

For two years (2021 and 2022), Malmö Citysamverkan, in collaboration with the City of Malmö, has organised the recurring Christmas market at Gustav Adolfs torg. The market runs for four periods and the approximately 40 exhibitors have a local and regional focus, sustainable products with short transport. In evaluations, visitors and exhibitors highlight the cosy atmosphere as welcoming and atmospheric, a feeling that keeps visitors coming back to discover the city's other businesses. The market is accessible so that everyone who wants to visit the market can

Photo: Jonas Persson

Modest fashion

Modest Fashion is a global fashion trend that made a big breakthrough in the 2010s. Many of the major fashion houses as well as clothing chains have their own modest fashion collections. The exhibition Modest Fashion at Malmö Museums was developed in collaboration with Tillskärarakademin, where students together with 8 young Malmö women interpreted the global fashion trend. The exhibition is part of the museum's efforts to highlight important women in history and thus update the often misleading picture of Malmö's business and industrial history that is often given. The exhibition runs from February 2022 to November 2023. It has received a lot of attention and been widely debated in the media.

Sustainability work - from the inside out

A good example of how we have worked with sustainability is a process we started in autumn 2022 when Malmö Citysamverkan, together with re:skills Textile & Fashions, invited to a two-stage workshop series on "How do we meet the consumer of the future?". The meetings included a lecture and together we discussed concrete strategies for how we who are active in the city can work together to meet changing consumption behaviours with profitable and sustainable competitiveness. The final session led to the creation of a working group, which Malmö was the only city to have achieved on Re:skills' national tour. The working group, consisting of businesses in the city centre and a representative from Malmö Citysamverkan, then developed a plan for a Circular Evening aimed at consumers. A successful event including a fashion show, mingle and fair was held at the historic Palladium on 26 January 2023. Further events on a similar theme are now being discussed. The event was co-financed by Malmö Citysamverkan, Palladium and through ticket sales. The working group contributed time for planning, getting participating organisations on board and implementation. All parties contributed with marketing. Talks are now being held between re:skills and Malmö Citysamverkan to see if there is any project or training package that can be scaled up and which may be relevant to the Key Cities Group nationally.

Form Design Centre

Form/Design Centre is run with the support of the Ministry of Culture, the City of Malmö, Region Skåne and the Swedish Arts Council and is the meeting place for architecture, design and crafts. The centre is open to all, Tuesday to Sunday, with free admission to exhibitions, seminars, workshops and tours. The building also houses a shop and café, where the proceeds contribute to the other activities. With a focus on the present and the future, the exhibition programme aims to make knowledge accessible and to inspire, but also to spark conversations about current issues in architecture, design and crafts and pave the way for new collaborations.
Form/Design Centre works long-term with sustainability in the context of the designed living environment. Through specialised expertise and a broad network of contacts, they highlight the subject from several different perspectives. With a focus on cross-sectoral collaboration, the development projects contribute forward-looking knowledge that strengthens the conditions for the UN's global sustainability goals. With its programmes, the Form/Design Centre contributes to a variety of events and exhibitions throughout the year. In 2018, the government designated the Form/Design Centre as a national node for the designed living environment.

Façade art

To say that Malmö is famous for its street art is not an exaggeration. Sweden's oldest legal graffiti wall was inaugurated several years before graffiti had even arrived in Sweden. The year was 1979 and the municipal car park company's new building, P-huset Anna, was completed by the canal in the middle of Malmö. The artist Leif Svensson decorated the car park with runes, but refrained from decorating one end of the building as he feared it would be scrawled over. Instead, he came up with a highly controversial proposal to turn one side into a legal graffiti wall. And so it was.
In addition to Malmö being an early adopter of graffiti-free spaces, initiatives have also been taken by both the City of Malmö and property owners. The art is available for public viewing throughout the city. Malmö's positive attitude towards everyone contributing to the cultural offer is shown, among other things, by the clarity of a special section on street art on the municipality's website.

Here we let a few external actors speak for us:
Swedish Nomad: "Much of Malmö's street art is world-class and some is at least as impressive as street art in New York, Georgetown, Miami, London and Berlin just to name a few."
Freedom Travel: "It can be called street art, street art, murals, murals or simply public art. Whatever you call it, you'll find a lot of this stuff in Malmö."

Photo: Thyra Evenäs Brandt 

The arena of ideas

It may be presumptuous to claim that Malmö residents are more creative than others. But to say that Malmö is a powerful environment for ideas, innovation and creativity is almost an understatement. The city has several start-up and incubator environments and Malmö University is a strong innovation player. in the centre of the city! And at the same time, Malmö has a distinct subcultural scene, with comic art, graffiti, skate, gaming industry etc. also operating in the Arena of Ideas. In addition, two more important variables influence; Malmö is a young and multicultural city. Sydsvenskan's old motto "If you've seen Malmö, you've seen the world" still holds true!

Gaming and television

Malmö is a global hub for game development where companies often choose to be located in city centres. It is an attractive location for attracting the type of staff they need and strengthening their corporate image. Malmö's heavy gaming industry means that the city is aiming to become the gaming capital of Europe. Today, gaming companies employ around 1,500 people, but within 10 years, 5,000 people are expected to work in the gaming industry in Malmö. The Game Habitat association, which works to attract game developers to the city, has received funding from the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth and the municipality. Game Habitat has partners such as MINC and Ideon Innovation.
Malmö's largest gaming company Massive, which is behind the new computer game AVATAR: Frontiers of Pandora, has recently moved from its premises in the city centre by the canal to Möllevången in the south of the city, to better adapt the environment to the work. Massive asked the City of Malmö to review the street environment where they moved in, and voilà, a new summer street was born, Ängelholmsgatan!

In the same location, Stena Fastigheter's creative neighbourhood, Anagram has also moved in. They are behind the popular TV series Thin Blue Line.

Another gaming company located in central Malmö is IO Interactive, which is currently working on a new James Bond game. They have been tenants of Wihlborgs on Östergatan in central Malmö since the summer.

In the last week of August 2022, the Future and Innovation Conference was organised The Conference In Malmö for the tenth time, 40 speakers and 1000 participants from different industries around the world gathered to give their perspectives on everything from new technologies such as AI, Web 3 and DAOs to sociology, storytelling, food, design and art. The 2022 conference focused on "How to thrive in an unknowable future" and "Systems thinking as a method", with in-depth sessions on "Regenerative design", "Natural intelligence", "Stories that shape the future", "How to organise innovation", "Spatial Computing" and "Web3". The Conference is held at Slagthuset in the centre of Malmö, a stone's throw from Malmö C. In 2023 it will of course be time again!

Ideas meet - TechConnect Europe and The Conference

In November 2021, Malmö hosted the international innovation conference TechConnect Europe, which aims to connect research with labs, startups and investors in various industries, such as biotech, energy and materials research. The event was held at Malmö Live, in the centre of Malmö, opposite Malmö University. Partners, in addition to a number of international actors, include the City of Malmö, Innovation Skåne, Invest in Skåne, Event in Skåne, Business Sweden.

ICLEI in Malmö 2021-2022

ICLEI - "Local Governments for Sustainability" is an international network for exchange of experience and knowledge development in green economy and sustainable community development - an important driver for enabling the voice of cities and regions globally. Malmö city has been a member since 1996. The network currently engages over 1750 cities and regions from over 120 countries in the common vision that cities and urban regions are the driving force in global sustainable development. ICLEI is a driving force for the local and regional level within the UN Climate Convention's Conference of the Parties (COP). On several occasions, the City of Malmö has co-operated with ICLEI at these global meetings. ICLEI also runs several projects annually and exchanges on sustainable urban development, sustainable procurement, biodiversity and more, often together with other key partners such as the OECD. Malmö was the proud host city for the ICLEI World Congress 2021-2022, starting with the Virtual Launch on 13-15 April, followed by the Road to Malmö webinar series in 2021 and culminating in a World Congress at Malmö Live in May 2022.

Malmö startup district and business strategy for Nyhamnen

Malmö's actors in start-ups and incubator activities have a certain geographical concentration. Work is underway to identify a slightly broader geography that takes into account where urban development and establishment will take place, in central Malmö. As the development of Nyhamnen, for example, takes off, there is probably reason to link ambitions for business development there with the idea of where start-up actors are located and operate in Malmö. In the work to develop Nyhamnen, the following are now being established Forum Nyhamnen, an arena for cooperation and dialogue between the municipality, business, academia and civil society. For the long-term development, a Value Compass has been developed, which is based on the direction and ambitions of the in-depth masterplan for Nyhamnen.

Nyhamnen will have a blue-green identity. Both in terms of sustainability and that many companies that establish themselves here should have a profile and a business concept where the sea is a resource.
Work is currently underway to develop an industrial strategy for this very purpose. This work raises questions such as;

• What kind of industries and companies fit into the concept of blue/green/innovative industries?
• Where are these industries and companies today?
• What factors influence the development of blue/green industries locally, regionally and internationally?
• Which other port cities have successfully focussed on a blue/green and/or innovative profile and can serve as inspiration?

Malmö Convention Bureau

Since autumn 2020, the Malmö Convention Bureau's mission has changed in part. In short, it means that Malmö CVB works with congresses and business events in a more strategic way. We asked Gëzim Kiseri at the Malmö CVB to explain more of what it actually means?

"The new approach means that we see congresses and business events as important tools for strategic movement that at the same time generate tourism economic returns for the city. Our vision has thus been broadened and shifted slightly. 1+1 will become 3 (and more). We are working on congresses, business events and investments that have a longer-term benefit, while continuing to attract visitors that stimulate the city's tourism industry. We are confident that the number of congresses and business events channelled through the city's CVB will not differ in quantity, but rather in quality, in the future. Congresses and business events are powerful tools in creating better interaction between the city, academia and business. When people meet, synergies are created that both generate direct economic effects and create opportunities for long-term sustainable development."

Other

In addition to these various events and initiatives, there have also been others such as façade art at Möllan and Sofielund, an exhibition at the castle on money and justice, various film festivals (BUFF, Nordic Panorama, Arab Film Festival, etc.), the NGBG cultural sound zone, various events in Folkets Park in collaboration with both civil society and other actors, National Day celebrations both in the city centre and around the city, New Year's Eve celebrations including Children's New Year and much much more, large and small. The city's entire range of events and activities simply cannot be accommodated in this application. We conclude by saying that welcome here, whatever the time, age or interests - in Malmö there is something for everyone.