27.4.2012

Bringing Fortuna to life with cooperation

The Fortuna Quarter on Läntinen Rantakatu in the centre of Turku will soon feature a unique design centre, tourist attraction and leisure resort. The quarter is centrally located and is thus an important strategic development target for Turku. After the vast renovation work is complete, the quarter will offer views on the culture and history of Southwest Finland. Turku University of Applied Sciences is also strongly involved in developing the quarter.

Images of Fortuna

Altogether approximately 150 TUAS students from different degree programmes in the faculty of Life Sciences and Business have participated in the Fortuna collaboration in spring 2012, in the form of different courses and theses.

“First-year students as well as degree students graduating in 2012 have been involved. Many different nationalities and a couple of foreign exchange students have taken part”, says Project Planner Sanna Ketonen-Oksi.

At the moment, the project analyses the material from the survey that studied the images related to the Fortuna Quarter (ca 1 000 answers). The data was collected by 100 Business Administration students. In the end of March, the students interviewed people in the centre of Turku and in shopping centres nearby.

“The survey will be ready by the coming summer”, says Ketonen-Oksi.

For the faculty of Life Sciences and Business, the cooperation with Turku Region Development Centre represents project activities that reinforce the multidisciplinary working life connections and open perspectives on regional development for students.  For the Fortuna project, the cooperation provides opportunities to utilise, in the creation process of a new market and meeting place, the insights and special know-how of university experts and students that represent the young consumer generation.   

This spring the cooperation parties have included the TUAS faculties of Telecommunication and eBusiness and Well-being Services, Turku Touring, HUMAK University of Applied Sciences and JA-YE Finland.

Online game and blog to help marketing

At the moment, an online game called Fortuna’s Fire Saver is in the making. The students designed the game together and it supports the image and product marketing of the Fortuna Quarters. The idea for the game came about during the NY Challenge day, which encourages innovative thinking and teamwork. The concept for the event that gathered approximately 30 students from different fields was created by JA-YE Finland.

“For the students, the innovation day represented a change in the working methods.  Those involved stated that the teamwork developed creativity and language skills and offered new views on problem solving. The operations model also received a lot of positive feedback from the teachers and the Fortuna project, and thus it will be easy to use to support different organisations or product development processes”, Ketonen-Oksi continues.

“The idea of the game is that players rescue people and animals from the burning city of Turku to the “lucky” Fortuna Quarter. Once the players arrive at the quarter, they will receive information on events and services organised at the quarter. The game was considered as both interesting and feasible", says Lecturer Emmanuel Querrec from the Degree Programme in International Business.

The game will be utilised for example in the event marketing of the coming summer and students will update it also to meet the needs of the 2012 winter season.

This spring the development needs of the Fortuna Quarter’s website and social media have been discussed.  The Fortuna blog, which has been implemented as a Bachelor’s thesis by students in Business Information Technology Irina Jakovleva and Jaana Isomoisio, will be completed in May. The blog will feature information, photos and videos of both the quarter’s events and services and for example, its history and the progress of the upcoming construction work. The aim is to promote the renown of the quarter and disseminate information on the different stages of its development work.