An unusual year creates new opportunities

The extensive closures and severe travel restrictions that were introduced during the spring obviously had major consequences for Move to Gothenburg's operations of attracting, receiving and retaining international expertise. I am therefore happy and proud to work with a team that has the ability to see opportunities in every situation and adjust quickly based on new conditions. I am also grateful to have a board that stands firm in our long-term ambition and with the clear message to continue to drive development in talent attraction and have the best possible tools in place for when the recruitment of international expertise takes off in earnest again.

From the end of March, we paused our marketing of an attractive region with exciting opportunities for international expertise. We had then reached almost 3.8 million people with skills that match the needs of our employers and thus built up a valuable digital talent pool with knowledge of our region. At the beginning of autumn, we went out with industry-specific campaigns in automotive and life science where over 1 million in the talent pool got to take part in messages relevant to their skills. In 2021, we will develop the concept of profession-specific communication. The first of these is AI where we, alongwith experts in the field, will map important parameters for the target group. Despite the sub-optimal conditions during the year, we also have managed to maintain the number of visitors to movetogothenburg.com, which means about 110,000 unique visitors from 180 countries.

We had barely shut down our physical business before we were able to go digital with both bookable meetings as well as chats and a customised career program aimed primarily at accompanying partners. During the year, we have conducted about ten events online with very good results. Perhaps the most remarkable thing is that the pressure on our digital advice has been great and therefore we have increased the service timing by 50%. But above all, our target group has increased and we now meet talents from around the world, with questions and thoughts before they come here, and sometimes before they have accepted an offer. It is a clear example of what is traditionally seen as a recipient service also becoming a tool for attracting competence.

Move to Gothenburg continues to be a strong voice in both the national and regional advocacy work around the conditions for attracting and receiving international expertise. We are gaining more and more attention nationally and I have high hopes that in 2021 we will have talent attraction on the national political agenda, where it has been conspicuous by its absence for too long. Regionally, it is extremely gratifying that the City of Gothenburg in the budget for 2021 has decided on the establishment of an international center. This is an issue that Move to Gothenburg has pursued since the start in 2016 and where a concept has been developed based on experience of completed operations and in close collaboration with relevant actors. We are therefore more than ready to be a part of realizing this in the coming years.

A guiding star in our development work has been collaboration between different actors. To succeed in this, a mutual understanding and respect for each other's activities as well as knowledge of the area that our work together aims to develop is required. I would therefore like to thank all of you, be it employers, authorities, universities, associations, municipalities, regions or other organizations, who with an open mind and the desire to learn more have contributed with your commitment and knowledge. Our continued collaboration will be of great importance for both the region's and Sweden's development in talent attraction.

I look forward to 2021 with optimism and also with the determination to take a big step forward in the work of attracting and receiving international expertise to our region.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Niklas Delersjö

Head of Move To Gothenburg