Olli Muurainen from Management Events awarded as Entrepreneur of the Year

8.11.2010

Olli Muurainen, the president of the board of Management Events, was awarded as the winner in Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2010 national competition in Helsinki the 5th of November 2010. Olli Muurainen will represent Finland in the international Entrepreneur Competition in Monte Carlo in summer 2011. Entrepreneur of the Year is the oldest and geographically largest international entrepreneur competition and was organized in Finland for the eighth time.

"The participants of the competition are great entrepreneurs, who have belief and vision for the future and who have had the courage to grow their business also in the past few years", Mikko Rytilahti, the head of the competition from Ernst & Young, comments this years candidates.

Olli Muurainen from Management Events was also awarded as the winner in the services category of the competition.

Internationalized event organizer stands out

Olli Muurainen's entrepreneurship started with a hobby. As a student he organized seminars and student parties. The experience from organizing events created a base for building a company that focused on fairs and professional events, when Muurainen was 23-years old. Management Events aim has been to stand out from competitors with a strong segmentation strategy. As an event entrepreneur Muurainen has gone against the tide: while others believed that big is beautiful he decided to focus on a specific target group.

Nowadays Management Events organizes over 160 events a year of which 70% is held abroad. In addition to Finland the company operates in Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Austria and Germany.

"Olli Muurainen has a burning heart for business and he's very innovative entrepreneur who has proved that a service concept that is developed in Finland can also be copied for the international markets. As an entrepreneur he's very determined and is not discouraged by difficulties", Rytilahti comments.

"Muurainen has redeemed the expectations for internationalizing. He has created a strong business culture in the company and his staff enjoys their work. Management Events has also succeeded in Great Place to Work –competition", Rytilahti says.

Event Industries multi talent

Management Events specializes in invitation only events and conferences for top management. Management Events organizes more than 160 events annually. 70 percent of the events take place abroad. The company was established in 1994 and during the last years it has rapidly gained footage in the European markets. In addition to Finland Management Events operates in Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Austria and Germany. The operations are currently expanding to Switzerland and Norway. Approximately 70 percent of the sales are made abroad. The company employs 150 people and 85 of them are working for operations outside Finland. The staff consists of ten different nationalities.

Olli Muurainen started his career as an entrepreneur already in the age of 18. As a student he organized events and parties for students and young people. A hobby turned into a business little by little. Success in organizing events created a base for building a company specialized in fairs and professional events. When the company was established Muurainen was only 23-years old.

The first steps of the young company weren't easy. In the beginning Muurainen took care, mainly by himself, of planning, selling and organizing the events. For the execution he hired part time staff. Muurainen's goal was to stand out from the competitors with a strong segmentation strategy and supreme service. In 2003 the company made a decision to focus only on the "invitation-only events" that were directed to professionals of different industries and carefully selected target groups. The events gathered together certain industries representatives, their potential partners and the high level decision makers of the industry. The priority was on creating business connections and networking as well as having high quality content in the event.

The processes of organizing events were developed continuously. Eventually they were refined to a level where the profits of every event were known well in advance before the event took place. All details were taken into account with the practical arrangements and the staff was prepared to handle all possible situations in the events. Clear conceptualization and modeling guaranteed that there was no room for hesitation or mistakes.

The next significant step in company's history was taken in 2004 when Muurainen decided to export the service product he had developed. Muurainen had been planning to internationalize the business already in the change of the millennium and with this in his mind he had induced experienced Swedish event industry operator Håkan Gershagen as the president of board of his company.

In internationalizing his service concept Muurainen once again chose an untraditional path. Instead of expanding his business operations safely on only one or two foreign markets Management Events decided to kick off the business in four countries almost simultaneously. The following year the foreign operations grew with two more countries. Muurainen took the main responsibility himself of the internationalizing processes. The following two years he traveled back and forth Europe recruiting people and setting up country organizations for all the new markets.

More info:

Olli Muurainen
Management Events
Tel. +358 (0)50 555 1375
olli.muurainen@managementevents.com

Miia Koski
Billnäs Ironworks
Tel. +358 (0) 40 519 2199
miia.koski@billnas.fi

Pictures of Olli Muurainen:
http://www.billnas.fi/en/media/photo_gallery.html

Pictures of the finalists:
http://www.netprofile.fi/pressphotos/eoy2010

A short company presentation by Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year 2010 winner, Management Events founder, Olli Muurainen:
http://img.managementevents.com/upload/videos/me_english.wmv