My name is Mona Elo, I work as a Researcher at SAMK’s Maritime Logistics Research Centre and when I look back at the past few months, what stands out most isn’t the deadlines. It’s the feeling of doing something together. Let me explain, I am currently a part of the Baltic Sea e-Nav project, as the marketing manager. The project is dedicated to modernizing digital navigation with the new S-100 Standard and is unique in the way of having end user pilot testing and feedback during the production phase, the feedback is used to adjust and further develop the new products.
From Hesitation to Collaboration
E-nav has in fact two sister Interreg Baltic Sea Region projects, ORMOBASS and MaDaMe. In the early spring of 2025, the MaDaMe and ORMOBASS projects reached out to our project and suggested to plan a joint seminar in Copenhagen on the 3rd of December 2025. At first, we were hesitant to committing to this large undertaking of planning a joint seminar, but the more we explored the benefits and meaning of participating, it seemed only to be the right choice to say yes.
It has so been said that this is something special as it is the first time three Interreg Baltic Sea Region project working together to organize a large joint seminar, it is truly one of those rare moments where collaboration became more than a word in a project plan.
Balancing Needs, Ideas, and Goals
One of the beautiful experiences of this collaboration was that there was space for everyone to bring forward their ideas, as well as room for constructive feedback. Keeping all three projects’ needs and goals in mind. Our biggest challenge was to plan an agenda, that would give all the three projects equal time to both demonstrate and present their projects, while giving the participants the opportunity to get familiar with all three projects.
In the end we decided to have a morning session where all three projects present their project and their goals reached so far. The afternoon sessions will be a rotation model where the audience themselves can choose where to participate, the different rooms offer everything from panel discussions, workshops and technical demonstrations.
The Value of Working Together
I am grateful for the good discussions and sharing of experiences between our projects, it has been a valuable process to be a part of, and I have learned a lot about working across projects to reach a common goal that benefits everyone.
All of the planning culminates in the joint seminar on the 3rd of December at the Danish Royal Library, you can read more about the event and if you’re interested you can register to participate online.