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A mockup by Annika Katter. Activity Map and Calendar is one of the services under development as part of the Avoin Map project for the Mallusjoki pilot region.

One of the services currently being developed in the Avoin Map project is the Activity Map and Calendar, a digital service designed to improve the visibility and discoverability of local events, attractions, and year-round activities in the Mallusjoki pilot region.

The need for this service emerged clearly from local discussions and earlier co-creation activities. In Mallusjoki, there are many interesting events, places, and community-led activities, but information about them is often scattered across different channels, difficult to keep up to date, or hard for visitors outside the village to find. The Activity Map and Calendar aims to solve this problem by creating a clear and attractive digital entry point.

The service is being designed as a flexible platform where users can explore places, events, and local experiences in one view. The concept combines a map-based

presentation of activities with an events calendar and an easy-to-understand landing page that supports both local users and visitors from nearby towns and cities. In future use, the service is intended to make it easier to discover what is happening in Mallusjoki throughout the year, from cultural events and community gatherings to attractions, nature-based activities, and other local highlights.

The development has been closely informed by stakeholder dialogue. Avoin Map Oy has worked with the Mallusjoki Youth Association, the City of Orimattila, and the Päijät-Häme Regional Council to better understand local needs and existing digital services. A key question has been how the new service can complement existing calendars and mapping initiatives rather than duplicate them. The result is a concept that focuses on flexibility, easy submissions, and moderated content, making it practical for community use while still being scalable.

At the mid-term stage of the project, the main landing page user interface has been designed. The next step is to review the concept with stakeholders and implement it as an MVP web service by the end of May 2026. The long-term goal is to create a service that not only supports Mallusjoki’s local identity and event ecosystem but can also scale into a community-facing digital service elsewhere.

The Activity Map and Calendar reflects the broader aims of the Avoin Map project: combining open-source digital tools, stakeholder participation, and rural-urban development in ways that are practical, visible, and locally meaningful.

The Avoin Map project has received funding from the PoliRuralPlus project, which is funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101136910.