During the panel discussion, Valtteri Toivola, Managing Director of Kuljetus ja Maansiirto Toivola Oy, shared his experiences.

- In wind farm projects, we have taken care of waste management and maintenance, among other things. In Sibanye-Stillwater's Keliber lithium project, we have handled soil supply, maintenance and waste management. My father transported the first load of ore from the Läntän mine 35 years ago. According to Toivola, the Keliber lithium project was partly made possible thanks to Tomas Luoma, a business developer from the Kaustinen sub-region. "Since we were first able to offer comprehensive waste management on the wind energy side, we have really been able to jump from one wind farm to the next," Toivola continued. Hietalahti and Sons Ltd's main business is precast concrete elements.

- The more demanding the solution, the better for us. We specialise in making highly customised elements. We subcontract on major projects in progress, such as Sibanye-Stillwater's Keliber Lithium project. On the support services side, we are also involved to some extent in lifting services," said Marko Malvisto, CEO.

He stressed the importance of networking.

- My personal style is that if we get the slightest inkling that new players are coming in, I actively contact them and try to arrange a meeting where I can present our company's services. Malvisto said that major projects allow local businesses to form clusters with companies from different sectors, and thus have the potential to offer a wider range of services than they could on their own. "Your own work is a good business card" Ville Nykänen, Managing Director of Peltisepänänliike Nykänen, said his company had contracted the Päiväneva HVAC project for the Keliber Lithium project.

- We were involved early on, and as projects have come up for tender, consultancies have approached us with requests for tenders. When you hang around in those circles, you get familiar contacts and interfaces with different players, so the name can stick in your mind. Especially if your own work has been a good calling card.

- We have good experience from several years of working with HVAC-Klemola. The total number of employees in the consortium is already close to 50, and we have made a name for ourselves, especially in industrial construction," says Ville Nykänen. Business developer Tomas Luoma from the Kaustinen sub-region said that, based on his experience, courage has played a fairly essential role in getting SMEs in the region involved in major projects.

- They have gone up to clients wearing yellow vests, shaking hands and telling them that we are tough to work with. That's where it all started. Businesses should contact us business developers whenever they need help. If we can't help, we'll help the business find someone who can," he said. Long-term partnerships bring added value

In the experience of entrepreneurs, partners also play a big role, as many companies would not have been able to meet their orders on their own. Juha Jääskelä, CEO of development company Witas, stressed the importance of long-term partners. He said it was also important to start building a network of partners for major projects early enough to agree on the roles of the players, their mutual responsibilities and risk-sharing, for example.

- If companies need to invest, it is a good idea to contact the local business organisation, such as a development company. Support for investment is available," he said. According to the panellists, there have been no big surprises in major projects. For example, safety at work is an issue that is widely recognised as important. For example, safety training is now a natural part of the safety culture on construction sites. Companies have acquired the necessary skills through subcontracting, apprenticeships and recruitment. When recruiting new employees, buffer radios have often proved to be a good alternative. Juha Jääskelä encouraged companies to cooperate with educational institutions, which is also a good way of recruiting talent. The panellists estimated that there will be a demand for both specialists and performing labour in the future

- You need to be proactive, have the courage to network and be persistent. Cooperation between companies has made it possible to grow business, said Anna Kotamäki, Managing Director of Central Ostrobothnia Entrepreneurs, who chaired the panel. And what kind of greetings did the companies send to the clients of current and future major projects?

- The network of services offered by local companies is so extensive that you can get almost anything from the regions, both high-quality services and end products - local operators have their own cooperation networks, which provide additional expertise. Here too, there are companies that can work together, locally, to create a data centre of any size. - The Suurhanketoimisto.fi website is a place where companies in the region interested in major projects can easily be found with their contact details.

The panellists were Valtteri Toivola (left), Juha Jääskelä, Marko Malvisto, Ville Nykänen and Tomas Luoma. Photo by Wegevision/Ville Viitamäki