Ilkka started building the PrintoCent community and its operations in 2011. His prior background in different companies, as an entrepreneur as well as in technology scouting and R&D, laid an excellent base for taking charge of forming and running a successful cluster for the commercialization of Printed Intelligence. PrintoCent — a bridge between R&D and companies! Fair to say, it has maybe not been just one bridge but several - many paths, many ways, many value chains.

We asked Ilkka, what he thinks has been most rewarding for him in his PrintoCent time: “Travelling with the youngsters and seeing their passion and enthusiasm grow - being able to pass on experiences of the importance of networking and connecting face-to-face with people. Getting research and development people out of their comfort zone to talk with business people and vice versa, creating new concepts, founding companies and seeing it work! Establishing the Printocent Innofest event for the first time and seeing the concept work better and better year-after-year has been very rewarding – from an idea to innovation to business”. 

How about what remains unfinished or did not (yet) happen as you hoped? “Based on my experiences in shipbuilding and public information systems I knew that the adoption of new technologies by industries is slow and missionary patience is needed to get remarkable disruption to take place. At first ten years in research to show the potential, then next ten years in startups to break through in some application areas and then another ten years to make the technology standardized and accepted. In parallel not to forget the training and education of experienced and new brains in the field.

So, long term funding commitments of public funding, startup investors and big companies are needed for research and startups as well as for whole R&D and Manufacturing value chain development. I trust that the clear benefits – light in weight, space and material savings, flexible and stretchable substrates, 3d-forming towards structural electronics integration – will soon pave the way for a wide range of application areas.

Due to heavy disruptions in value chains I believe that the courageous big companies utilize the brilliant know-how created in PrintoCent community and will invest in Finland and Europe to secure the Printed Intelligence industrialization and new way product creation for the benefit of European communities.

What are your plans for the future, Ilkka? “I will not disappear from the Printed Intelligence field as  I will continue working through Testi Technologies, and hopefully seeing you in PRINSE, PrintoCent Innofest and cluster meetings. However, I will be dedicating more time to other “hobbies” – as indicated by the picture.

We want to warmly thank Ilkka for his long-time work and commitment to get Printed Intelligence commercialized. He has not counted working hours nor been afraid to grab the phone to call any of us when needed and when he has seen potential to connect people, businesses or technologies with each other. After 1.7.2023 Ilkka can be reached on +358 40 149 4006, ilkka.kaisto@promilless.com