Aalto Creative Demo Day
Welcome to Aalto Creative Demo Day where this autumn’s creative industry pre-incubator participants take the stage to pitch their business concepts in front of an expert jury. The teams’ versatile startup ideas relate to fashion, extended reality, design, architecture, digital modeling, makerspaces, gamification, film industry, AI, and interactive art.
On top of showcasing the work of our pre-incubator participants, this event celebrates the launch of the Aalto Creatives program which will start in early 2025. It is the rebranded version of Aalto Digital Creatives which encourages applications from all sectors of the creative industries without the need for a digital aspect.
At this event you have the opportunity to meet representatives from some of the key players in Aalto University’s startup ecosystem. Come and talk to the people from Aalto Startup Center, Junction, Design Factory, AaltoES and Strive to find out how you can benefit from their services and events on your entrepreneurial journey.
Following the stage program, we welcome everyone to stay for snacks, music and networking. Registration is free, but mandatory. Places are limited, so act fast to secure your spot.
Link to live stream
Schedule
13.00 Opening words, Katriina Haikala, Artist and Systemic Team Coach
13.10 Welcome speech by Tomi Erho, Head of Innovation Ecosystem Services, Aalto University
13.25 Launch of Aalto Creatives program, Ari Kivimäki, project manager, Aalto Creatives
13.35 Presenting the jury and structure of pitches
13.40 Pitches 1-4
Pitch 1: Accentric.AI
Pitch 2: Path Pleasure
Pitch 3: Addable
Pitch 4: The Shimmering Wood
14.15 Break
14.30 Pitches 5-8
Pitch 5: Sparks
Pitch 6: Revie
Pitch 7: Nite Labs
Pitch 8: Mimiqit
15.05 Closing words
15.15 End of online event and stage program
15.15 Snacks, music and free networking
17.30 End of event
Marsio Stage events are tailored for simultaneous onsite and online participation. The venue has robotic cameras that cover the whole event area. Please note that the audience might appear in the live stream and recordings.
Jury
Helene Auramo | BrainBites, Marja-Liisa Niinikoski | Finnish Textile and Fashion Association, Heikki Laaninen | Metropolia University of Applied Sciences and Vesa Raudasoja | Business Helsinki
Helene Auramo is the CEO and Co-Founder of BrainBites (www.brainbitesai.com) and Nordic Listed Leaders (www.nordiclistedleaders.com). She is an entrepreneur and co-founder of Slush (www.slush.org), Zipipop (Finland’s first social media agency), and Indiedays (Finland’s first fashion blogger platform). Helene has served on various boards, from startups to publicly listed companies, including Fodelia Oyj. She writes a column for Talouselämä and was awarded Future Board Member of the Year in 2022.
www.heleneauramo.com
Marja-Liisa Niinikoski is the managing director of the Finnish Textile and Fashion Association, where she is dedicated to advancing the digitization of the industry and the growth and internationalization of sustainable consumer business. Her extensive experience includes serving as CEO in various companies and conducting research in innovation studies, resulting in the publication of peer-reviewed scientific articles in leading journals within the field.
https://www.stjm.fi/
Heikki Laaninen is the project manager at Metropolia UAS for Baltic Sea Games Go! - a collaborative project aimed at supporting the gaming industry ecosystem and new game developers in the Baltic Sea Region. He is an experienced business developer specializing in the creative industries and cultural segment with a strong international background. His extensive career includes a tenure at a design and branding company in the Netherlands, as well as valuable experience at Rovio Entertainment. For over a decade, Heikki has worked as an entrepreneur in the cultural segment in Finland. Offering his expertise as a consultant, agent, advisor, and business developer, he has helped numerous entertainment, design, and content brands expand their reach, particularly in international markets.
Vesa Raudasoja is a Special Planner at Business Helsinki, focusing on initiatives that support business growth and innovation. A startup enthusiast, he previously worked as a Business Advisor, helping game startups grow and contributing to Helsinki’s thriving gaming ecosystem.
With over 15 years of experience in the gaming industry, Vesa has co-founded several startups and associations, including IGDA Finland NGO and Finnish Game Jam NGO, both pivotal to the global gaming community. As a former Chairperson of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), he fostered international collaboration and industry growth. Vesa specializes in business development, strategic partnerships, and ecosystem building, leveraging his expertise to support startups and advance the gaming industry globally
Aalto Startup Ecosystem Guests
At this event you have the opportunity to meet the representatives from some of the key players in Aalto's startup ecosystem. Read their introductions here.
There are two courses, along with an online course called Entrepreneurial Essentials: Artist as an Entrepreneur, which form a collection aimed at helping students understand various aspects of entrepreneurship and build a livelihood around their craft. Throughout the courses, they explore the mindset, skills, and challenges associated with the entrepreneurial journey. They also focus on ways to apply creativity—not only to improve the product or service but also to enhance the processes involved.
Aaltoes is the home to wild ideas and doer-mentality. They are committed to making anyone that walks through their doors become the best founder in the world. By joining Aaltoes you can challenge yourself with real-life entrepreneurial opportunities and see what it takes to bring an idea to life.
Strive is a project which aims to revolutionize the Finnish job market into one where startups are recognized as the best places for students to thrive in a high-growth environment. Their flagship event is a Startup Crawl held every year in Helsinki.
Aalto Design Factory is an interdisciplinary product design and learning hub uniting students, teachers, researchers, and industry. They focus on design-based learning for development collaboration, aiming to build an interdisciplinary, student-centered, impact oriented learning culture in Aalto University.
Junction is a not-for-profit event organizer and tech community, built by developers, students and entrepreneurs. Junction brings together the most ambitious creators and top-tier partners to build and learn with the latest technologies. The projects built in Junction's hackathons solve real-life challenges and have resulted in a wide variety of new business opportunities. Junction's whole calendar year culminates to Junction main event in November. This year it brought together over 1200 tech talents from all over the world to the hackathon. Junction is part of the Startup sauna ecosystem and operates under startup foundation.
Aalto Startup Center accelerates the growth and success of early-stage startups, particularly those with a focus on high-tech and sustainable innovations. With almost 30 years of experience, they provide a supportive ecosystem that includes access to mentorship, funding networks, expert guidance, and tailored training.
For more information contact
Heidi Rintala
Communications & Impact Specialist
Aalto Digital Creatives | Aalto Studios
050 330 7507 | [email protected]
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