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The 10th PrintoCent InnoFest was held on September 12-13, 2024 at the beautiful Nallikari beach restaurant in Oulu. PrintoCent InnoFest is an innovation competition — it’s a place where ideas, problems and Printed Intelligence solutions meet. It’s a place to learn how Printed Intelligence can solve on-going and future issues and create sustainable solutions. InnoFest is an open innovation event for anyone interested in Printed Intelligence. It has been a launching arena for several new companies and innovations within companies during the years.

The 10^th PrintoCent InnoFest event hosted slightly over 100 participants equally from industry and academia. The event had again an international spread; this time six nationalities were present. Happily, also the age-spread was good; we got some true youngsters to join and also some retired “old-foxes”.

The main themes this time were: Wearable and diagnostics, energy solutions, PI as a game-changer. Under these themes, sixteen innovation ideas had been selected through a pre-evaluation process. Some of the idea owners had built a team on their own, and some of the idea owners came by themselves. However, all ideation teams were boosted with additional experts, at least of Printed Intelligence know-how but also with designers, technology and business experts. Altogether these 60 experts from business and research did an amazing job in integrating to their teams immediately. Competition could begin!

In addition to very concentrated yet enthusiastic innovation, the participants could visit company booths of The Warming Surfaces Company, Elcoflex, Screentec, Tactotek and Delta Modtech, and learn about their products and processes within the Printed Intelligence industry. Also, the EU funded projects Infinite and Reboot were introduced and opportunities in these presented. Speeches were given by last years’ InnoFest winning team “Hidden power” by Antti Backman and financing advise was given by Investor Ville Heikkinen from Butterfly.

All teams made an incredible improvement on the innovation idea development, both technical and business wise, from the 3 min pitch on the first day to the 1 min pitch on the second day. And as always, the jury faced a challenging task in selecting the finalists and winners. The jury included Serial entrepreneur Markku Känsäkoski from MK Fluidics and Smart PD solutions, Creative technologist Ashley Colley from University of Lapland, Business and industry expert Christian Sundell from UC Management and Printed Intelligence expert Raimo Korhonen from Iscent.

The grand winner of PrintoCent InnoFest 2024 is team Pranava! Pranava innovation analysis metabolism from breathing cycles enabling dietary guidance and healthier life. Wildest idea price was received by team Bio Lidar and Attitude prize was given to Horse-AI.   

The 1st prize winner team was awarded with an ”InnoBoost” -prize. This means they will get  1) Visibility boost at PrintoCent Industry Cluster meeting or/and the PRINSE26 seminar, 2) Consultation on the idea development, and 3) First stage material functionality and capability testing at the PrinLab at Oulu University of Applied Sciences.

The 10^th anniversary was celebrated with some sparkling and music from our very own Printed Intelligence duo Ilkka Kaisto and Kari Rönkä. We thank all participants and welcome everyone to join us at InnoFest on June 5-6, 2025!