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Finlandia Fridays talks ‘Testing Tuesday’ with international business student Kevin Danks

January 29, 2021
Testing Tuesday

A presenter from the January 2021 “Testing Tuesday: US Edition” event

International business student Kevin Danks joined host Olivia Myers on this week’s episode of Finlandia Fridays to talk about the new ‘Testing Tuesday: US Edition’ events that give business students real-world experience in international business relations.

International Business major, Kevin Danks

The initiative, launched in November, have been a collaboration between the XES student entrepreneurial community from Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences in Helsinki, Finland, the FinnU Business Professionals of America (BPA), FinnU International School of Business, MTEC SmartZone and FinnZone. Set-up like Shark Tank sans multi-million dollar bids, the events feature live video business plan presentations by XES and other Helsinki-based entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurs then receive feedback and advice from a panel of business experts from FinnZone and the Keweenaw’s business network.  The overall goal is to develop relations with the XES community, share ideas and explore actual business opportunities.

“It’s about connecting people internationally and finding out if people’s products or services are going to be a viable product in the market here in the U.S,” said Danks, who serves as Vice President of the BPA. “We have a lot of small entrepreneurs over in Finland that XES has set up to present, and we set up the judges on our end. The entrepreneurs share their ideas and get good feedback from people who are experts in the field they’re trying to get into.”

As VP of the BPA, Danks’ role is to help coordinate the event, including signups. As a student, Danks sees the value of the experience and finds inspiration in the businesses that have presented already.

“Being as that I’m really trying to break into the international aspect of business, this has just been the best aspect for me to learn from,” said Danks. “It’s really giving me insight of what it takes to collaborate with people around the world, as well as being able to share the different ideas people have. Now that I’m seeing different ideas and how to improve people’s lives around the world, its just been an invaluable tool for me.” 

You can learn more about Testing Tuesdays and how the events are set up here. For questions about upcoming events, please reach out to Kevin Danks at bpa-finlandia-chapter@finlandia.edu.

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