We traveled down to Helsinki last week to participate in BusinessOulu’s side-event at the world-famous Slush festival. Titled ‘Beyond Helsinki: Oulu Innovation Spotlight’, the aim was to not only showcase our region’s impressive and dynamic technological credentials, but also to provide a platform for some of our local startups to present their assets to a global audience.
The event was held at the Spaces Postitalo workspace, located right in the heart of central Helsinki and just a stone’s throw away from its main train station. Jussi Leponiemi, Key Account Director of the ICT sector at BusinessOulu, kicked things off with a presentation about what the city of Oulu is able to offer to international stakeholders. In particular, there was an emphasis on what work was being achieved in some of the new and emerging domains such as edge computing, microelectronics, and AI.
After the presentation from Jussi, an eclectic and forward-thinking selection of startups from the Oulu region came up to the stage to showcase their assets through short, three-minute pitches. These companies range from those who have been established for a few years to fresh-faced enterprises that are barely a few months old. Over the course of around forty five minutes, an attentive audience learned about some of the innovative products and solutions being created in the worlds of AI, health tech, cyber security, AR/VR, clean tech and more.
The evening was rounded off with an overview of the upcoming return of Polar Bear Pitching on 29th February 2024, presented by Viera Karam, Head of Investor Relations at BusinessOulu. Audience members who were previously aware of the event were clearly excited by its comeback following a lengthy hiatus! There were also many attendees who were learning about it for the very first time and were curious to find out more. If you would like to do the same, visit the Polar Bear Pitching website right now for all the details you need and to secure your ticket today.
Guests were busy networking after the conclusion of the event, as new global connections were formed ahead of the official start of Slush. Overall, this was a great event to be a part of and it was wonderful to see so many confident and sharp pitches from members of our diverse ICT cluster!