This week was very special week for us. Turku Castle and its yard was filled with over 2000 visitors this week when SHIFT took place for the second time bringing together startups, scaleups, students, AI experts and investors to learn from each other, to network and to enjoy the start of a summer.

It has been fantastic to be part of building something like SHIFT for the past few years. It provides not only a great business opportunities for entrepreneurs and investors but also an opportunity for young talent to work in a community that drives forward. This year we had over 200 volunteers working hard to create the event and making sure everyone left the event with a smile on their face.

We hosted our Boost Makerspace in the yard giving participants an opportunity to see what can be done and to experiment themselves. We partnered up with our last year's Startup Journey winner Morrow Games and their partner, therapist Antti Apostol, to showcase how virtual reality can be used in exposure therapy. Morrow Games have created a VR experience where a patient suffering from arachnophobia can in safe environment overcome their fears. It is now being piloted and we had dozens of people testing it out during SHIFT. Mobiili.fi wrote an article about the project on Tuesday (in Finnish only).

Our other partner was Turku Hacklab - a maker community - who brought their robots, drones and 3D printers into SHIFT to showcase what can be built with consumer level tools and even with some household items. We are reaching the moment when 3D printers become items in every house and in the industry 3D printing will change so much. With Hacklab, you can learn how to get started with 3D printing and electronics to build things yourself.

People also had an opportunity to do arts and crafts with plasticine, haiku poems and glitter paint as well as take photos with our Boost Photo Frame to share their greetings to the world. Check out our Instagram account to see what people built.

And what would a business event be without the community builders from all around the country. We were joined by Helsinki Think Company, LaureaES, JoensuuES, SeiES, OuluES, TampereES, JyväskyläES, LUTES and HHES - the fantastic Entrepreneurship Societies who work to build a better entrepreneurship future to Finland.

In the SHIFT pitching competition two of our alumni teams, Aavagen and Rekorder, pitched wonderfully and Aavagen made it to the finals to be roasted by a demanding jury. Our next summer's Startup Journey team Entis was also in SHIFT and Kakola After Party providing visitors a view into the future of food.

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