Ronny Eriksson.

The first Flavoria Innovation Festival started with some inspiring talks on ideas, innovation and tackling the challenges in the food chain. Later in the afternoon the student teams began working on the company challenges presented by Oy Lunden Ab Jalostaja, Leipomo Rosten Oy and Sodexo Oy.

On day 1 of the innovation week, the participants got to hear serial entrepreneur Ronny Eriksson‘s views on turning ideas into innovation, and professor of practice Reetta Kivelä‘s points on tackling the challenges of the food chain, while also addressing climate goals.

In his presentation, Eriksson encouraged the students to talk about their idea to others:

We often fear that someone might steal our idea, but if you have come up with it you will also be the best person to solve that challenge. Also, ideas are great, but in itself they are worth nothing – the question is “do I actually start to practically solve the challenge?”

Eriksson also encouraged starting entrepreneurs to talk to their possible clients early on in the process, as it is them who need to be convinced and can also lead you in the right direction.

Kivelä shared her insights on food start up’s and the future of food innovations – according to Kivelä, new innovations on food are doing great when it comes to investments. She also encouraged the students to focus on their own work and passion, no matter what critics might say:

There will always be hypes and lows, but just focus on your work. Innovations also feed each other and new innovations can be built based on the previous ones.

Lightning talks and idea mapping

The afternoon continued with dividing into the actual teams and hearing challenge related lightning talks from company representatives and visiting experts. The experts were Johanna Tanhuanpää from Inverine, Riikka Leskinen from Valonia and Anna Bäckström from Thoughtworks.

After getting new insights from the talks and chatting with the company representatives, the students began their work by getting to know their team, mapping out ideas, turning possible challenges into possibilities and listing some additional questions to the companies.

On Tuesday, the teams will continue their work and get to spar their ideas with mentors.