PrintoCent Innofest 2022 was held for the 8th time already in the beginning of September at the Oulu beach site, Nallikari.

PrintoCent Innofest 2022 was held for the 8th time already in the beginning of September at the Oulu beach site, Nallikari.

Once again we witnessed great innovativeness, great team work and fair (not fierce) competition! Innofest is a serious, yet such a fun event and the biggest innovation competition around Printed Intelligence. We saw some great mixing and matching of people and ideas from different industries, cultures and origins, from academia to business. We had altogether 110 people from more than 10 countries in the event.

Altogether 16 superb teams worked for 2 days on their idea. Some of the ideas came from existing or “to-be-established” companies, some from academia and some from individual innovators or organizations. All teams were boosted with experts from business and research – including expertise on the idea topic, design, financing and technology. Once again we saw remarkable innovation development happening during the 2 days! The pitches show such improvement and cristallization of the idea and the business potential from the day-one 3-minute pitch, to next morning’s 1-minute pitch! After the 1-minute pitch, the jury chooses the top 5 ideas for the final round of 3-minute pitches. And then the honourable jury announces the winners. The jury included Harri Hyväri (EH Konsultointi), Jani-Mikael Kuusisto (Ynvisible), Markku Känsäkoski (University of Oulu) and Timo Peltoniemi (Elcoflex). The winners are:

• The winner of PrintoCent InnoFest 2022 is Future Food Factory! This Innovation will renew the whole food value chain with sustainable and profitable food factories producing both veggies and proteins.
• Wildest idea price was received by Lab on Chip for Spectroscopy-idea which is a solution for early stage disease detection, e.g for diabetes.
• Jury’s special acknowledgement was given to Oulu 2026 – a team that intends to make Printed Intelligence known globally during The Oulu European Culture Capital year 2026!

In addition to the competition, there are always industry speakers presenting their views and the industry status update, and keynote speakers on chosen inspirational topics. This year’s speakers were:

• Antti Tauriainen from Screentec
• Timo Peltoniemi from Elcoflex
• Heikki Huhmo from Radio Park / Business Oulu
• Heikki Myllylahti from TechArt project relating to Oulu2026, European Capital of Culture 2026
• Mirko Brummer “How to protect your idea?”, Aidian
• Jani-Mikael Kuusisto “Innofest winner 2021 – what’s up?”, The Warming Surfaces Company
• Ville Heikkinen “How to finance your idea”, Butterfly Ventures

Please enjoy our event video and get tuned in to participate at the PrintoCent Innofest 2023! Be brave and do join us, it is well worth it.

… meanwhile …. “Pay attention – ideas are around you”!