A week of collaboration and creativity at TECHARENA

The Connected Innovation and Norfolk and Suffolk Unlimited team have returned from an insightful week at TECHARENA in Sweden, where collaboration, ecosystem building, and cross‑sector innovation took centre stage. The event brought together leaders from across Europe to explore emerging technologies, strengthen partnerships, and uncover new opportunities across regions

Exploring Sweden’s Gaming & Creative Technology Landscape

One of the standout moments of the week was a visit to Paradox Interactive, who generously opened up their Stockholm studios. Offering deep insights into the structure, strengths, and future trajectory of Sweden’s globally recognised games industry.

This session highlighted the opportunities for stronger collaboration between the UK and Nordic creative tech ecosystems which build on the ambitions in the Games in the East report launched last year – Games Growth Plan for the East

Dual‑Use Technologies and Defence Innovation

A major theme across TECHARENA was the rising importance of dual‑use technologies and innovations that serve both commercial markets and defence applications, highlighting how critical cross‑sector collaboration has become. With strong capabilities in advanced manufacturing, AI, space technologies, materials science and more, our own regional ecosystem is well placed to contribute to and benefit from this growing strategic priority.

Strengthening European Partner Ecosystems

From Sweden to Finland, Latvia, and Germany, the week provided a valuable opportunity to reconnect with long‑term partners and engage with new contacts across Europe.

These conversations helped identify new pathways for collaboration, talent exchange, innovation support, and market access ensuring we remain plugged into leading networks across the continent.

And of course, no trip would be complete without mentioning one of the more unexpected highlights: catching a talk from former Swedish former professional footballer Zlatan Ibrahimović himself an inspirational and entertaining close to an already packed week.