Seminar in Geneva: From Procurement to Piloting

The INGOs project will land in Geneva at the same time, when AidEx 2025 is also taking place, bringing a powerful message: let’s rethink humanitarian innovation by putting piloting before procurement. In collaboration with key partners, the project is organizing an independent pre-event seminar that challenges traditional way of thinking and highlights how small-scale pilot projects can drive smarter, faster, and more adaptive solutions.

The seminar gathers humanitarian innovators, UN agencies, NGOs, and solution providers for a half-day of insights, dialogue, and practical examples. Among the attending organizations are World Food Programme (WFP), Christian Aid, CERN, and a diverse mix of innovative SMEs. The session is free to participate and designed especially for SMEs looking to enter or expand their role in the humanitarian sector and humanitarian agencies who want to get a new food for thought on how to to operate in constant changing world solving complex questions.

Register for the seminar via this link. Registration online has been closed.

21.10.2025 Seminar Program:

“From Procurement to Piloting – A Smarter Path to Innovation and Impact”
Location: Crowne Plaza, Geneva, Switzerland
Time: 12:00–16:30, 21st October

12:00–13:00
Registration & Coffee

13:00–13:10
Opening Remarks: Welcome and introduction to INGOs project and partners
– Sami Puttonen, Project Manager at Business Tampere

13:10–13:30
Keynote Talk: “Private-public sector cooperation in humanitarian aid, nexus and development projects – Estonia’s examples from Ukraine”
– Mariin Ratnik, Undersecretary at Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia

13:30–14:15
Panel Discussion: “Perspectives from the Field: Mindset & Partnerships That Makes the Difference”
Within this panel session we will share examples and experience how the challenge based approaches has been helpful when starting to solve larger scale complex problems. What type of roles are identified in the process. Are there any bottlenecks? How financing mechanism can support the engagement in public partner partnership. And most importantly, what we need to do to change our mindset ensuring the impact that can be quickly proven through agile piloting instead of always starting from long and complex traditional procurement processes and focus on building things partnership between stakeholders.
Panelists:
– Topi Hukkanen, Business Partnership Officer at Finnpartnership
– Clara Halvorsen, Senior Advisor at Danish Industries
– Benjamin Safari, Head of Supply Management Service at UNHCR
– Petri Virtanen, Education Export and Inclusive Innovation Specialist, at Finnish Consortium

14:15–15:00
Roundtable Discussions with following hosts: Christian Aid, CERN, World Food Programme, UNHCR, UN Women, IOM, International Trade Center…
During the roundtable sessions, participants will have time to attend on two 20 minute long informal conversation with table hosts. During this informal dialogue, you have a possibility to hear how private sector partnership is part of the actions, share some of your ideas if you have seen the space of improvement somewhere, and of course extend your networks with other table participants.

CERN, hosted by Emmanuel Tsesmelis, Senior Physicist and Head of Relations with Associate Members and Non-Member State,
CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, is one of the world’s largest and most respected centres for scientific research. It relies on a wide range of high-tech goods and services from industrial partners across its Member and Associate Member States. Through its procurement process, CERN offers companies a unique opportunity to supply cutting-edge technologies and innovative solutions in fields such as electronics, IT, mechanics, and civil engineering. For companies, working with CERN means not only contributing to groundbreaking science but also gaining international visibility, fostering innovation, and building valuable references for future collaborations.

UNHCR, hosted by Benjamin Safari, Head of Supply Management
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency leads international action to protect people forced to flee because of conflict and persecution. We deliver life-saving assistance like shelter, food and water, help safeguard fundamental human rights, and develop solutions that ensure people have a safe place to call home where they can build a better future.

Other hosts: Christian Aid, World Food Programme, UNHCR, UN Women, IOM, International Trade Center

15:00–15:30
Networking Break

15:30–16:15
Panel Discussion: “Scaling What Works – How to move from pilot to action?”
During the last session, we will invite few organizations on the stage sharing their insights how things can be moved towards action and impact. To be successful, the perspectives of localization, finance, being agile and coordination between key stakeholders and matching the right people in right places empowering local knowhow, are things all need all to be considered which are some the burning questions in the session.
Panelist:
– Anssi Mikola, CEO at RiverRecycle
– Antti Pinomaa, Associate Professor at Lappeenranta University of Technology / Co-founder of Karu-Grid
– Ben Beuchel, Displacement & Migration at International Trade Center (ITC)


16:15–16:30
Closing Session: Summary, insights ideas for next steps
– Mr. Jukka Salovaara, Secretary of State, Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland
– Sami Puttonen, Project Manager at Business Tampere

17:00 –
Networking Reception co-hosted jointly by Nordic-Baltic Permanent Missions.
Kindly note that a personal registration link will be sent after you register for the seminar.

The program and topics are still subject to change and will be updated here closer to event date. .

The seminar is organized by the Export to International NGOs -project, which is funded by Interreg Central Baltic Programme.