Tune in to the UEF CECE morning coffees! Thoughts after seven seasons

Kristina Leppälä’s blog text on CECE morning coffees.

Milestone for the morning coffee

UEF CECE morning coffees have been a popular activity and going strong for seven seasons! Our mission is to share knowledge about the circular economy in a clear and transparent way, and to do this with a united spirit. Now is a good time to review a little bit of the UEF CECE morning coffee history, including who have served as morning coffee hosts, provide some statistics, see what the future holds for us as a morning coffee community, and who all we have had the pleasure of hosting!

Since the morning coffees started, I have been in a producer role, coordinating the speakers, the hosts and co-hosts, and the schedule. It’s been a pleasurable task, and I will provide a short guided tour through our activities! Take note that season eight starts in autumn 2026; those signed up already will receive an invitation automatically.

Short history of UEF CECE morning coffees

The morning coffee started off as an initiative from the five-year circular economy research project CICAT2025. This project was a large, multi-institutional research project with cross-disciplinary academics examining the circular economy from many angles. The University of Eastern Finland’s Business School was one of the participating universities, and Professor Hanna Lehtimäki led our work, and served as vice-chair for the entire consortium. When the research project ended, the morning coffees continued at UEF and were, and still are, sponsored by the UEF Research Center for Sustainable Circular Economy, UEF CECE. Along the way, the morning coffees have been jointly sponsored by another project at UEF involving UEF CECE researchers, the EU Just Transition project CE4ALL.

The morning coffees have grown since their inception, and we have developed our concept over the years. Both the visual presence and the routine of the morning coffees have been refined over the years, and we hope to keep developing the morning coffees. Feedback is positive, and the interest continues to grow. We have our own visuals, designed by our researcher Krista Leppänen, and the role of the host has grown over the years. Morning coffees are promoted on our research group’s website, the inter- and intranet of UEF, our LinkedIn page, and KiSu’s event calendar.

Morning coffee hosts

In the seven-season period, we have had dedicated hosts. Hosts have included myself, Ida Parkkinen, Nuppu Mielonen, Mikko Lampinen, Krista Leppänen, Olga Kalchenko, and Juha Kinnunen. Each host is responsible for the half-hour session, including introducing the guest(s) and facilitating discussions; the discussion after the main presentation is a fruitful time, as it is then that we go beyond the presentation and get some interesting insights. Note that new hosts are joining us during the next seasons; they will come from the UEF Business School SunLab team, too. Stay tuned!

Who have been joining?

The weekly half hour sessions are held in a warm atmosphere, with researchers from around the globe presenting. Our participants are also from around the world. In the seven seasons, we have had 1542 connections for the morning coffees! We have nearly 500 people signed up for the morning coffees, and we have been told that some of the connections have more than one person listening. This shows us that we are discussing pertinent issues which are of scale. Our participants include researchers, educators, practitioners, business leaders, and the general public. The Q&A sessions after the 20+ minute presentations are always thoughtful and thought-provoking. Afterwards, speaker slides are available on request, and we have started recording the sessions to produce a library of resources coming soon!

You can find all past and upcoming speakers here

Kristina Leppälä ([email protected])