What's it all about?

Innovation festival for the bravest of students and companies

Sprint Innovation Festival is a week-long annual innovation festival that brings together a staggering amount of higher education students, companies, municipalities and third sector organizations as well as experts and researchers from various domains. Formerly known as InnoEvent Tampere, this event is the largest innovation event within the Tampere higher education community. The event offers a unique opportunity for learning and networking.

Over the course of one week, some 500 students will solve real business challenges for various organizations, pulling together as multidisciplinary teams. The students get to put their theoretical know-how into practice and learn new meta skills that complement the things they learned in school. To solve the challenges, the students get support from coaches, experts and members of the organization that presented the challenge. During the week, students and partners will have a unique opportunity to network. There’s a good chance that you’ll find new talent for your organization in this event.

This year the students have an opportunity to invent their own solutions to UN´s sustainable development goals. Is nature, responsible consumption or perhaps sustainable cities and communities close to your heart? In the event you have a chance to bring your own vision to these and numerous other sustainable development goals.

The intensive week will conclude with the jury reviewing the work and picking the best solutions. The best ideas will be noticed and teams will have an possibility to continue working with their ideas even after the event.

The official event languages are English and Finnish.

7
successful festivals
4000
participating students
70+
completed cases
450+
new ideas

FAQ

I have a question about the event which I cannot find the answer to. Who do I contact and how?

If you’ve searched and read through all available information, and still can’t find the answer you need, contact us! You can either send an email or call one of us specifically, if you know to whom send your question. Keep in mind that Sprint Innovation Festival is a big event, and we receive lots of emails. We do answer them but sometimes it may take a little while. After all, we are also only humans! Also, during the event you can find all the project team members at the venue – don’t hesitate to ask us directly if you have any questions!

Do the participating students receive ETCS?

Of course! Each team member receives 2 ETCS at the end of the event. Be sure to enroll to the event via TAMK. If you are an exchange student, you must go through Unipoli Tampere.

Is Friday night’s Gala mandatory for everyone?

The Friday night’s Gala is part of the event, therefore everyone is expected to participate. It is also the place where the case winners are announced and rewarded, so naturally you’ll want to join to find out who’ll get to take home the prizes – it may just be your team! The Gala is also the place to celebrate the past week and relax after a demanding innovation project, so why would you not want to be there?

What if I enroll but turns out I can’t participate?

If you find out before the event begins that you will be unable to participate, although you’ve already enrolled, the first thing you should do is to Contact us! This will make things for us easier and the event run smoother. If you’ll only be absent for a few hours, communicate with your team how you can best work together and divide the workload. Sprint Innovation Festival is an intensive week that requires presence every day. Generally only an illness is accepted as a valid reason for absence.

Who decides the winners for each case?

Winners for each case are decided by a team of judges. The team of judges is composed of company representative(s), teachers of universities of Tampere and a third-party representative.

Can I change teams in the middle of the week?

Changing teams during the event is generally not possible. We at Sprint Innovation Festival want to emphasize learning through interprofessional collaborative teamwork and communication. If there are exceptional issues within your team that disrupt the workflow, contact Sprint Innovation Festival project team.

Who decides what team I am in and on what basis?

The teams are organized by our project team members. They will make sure every team has the correct amount of students in it, and that the students come from as many different fields of study as possible. This way each team will have several different points of view. The teams will be organized based on enrollments before the event begins. Participants will be let known in which team  they belong a week before the event.

Where do the cases come from?

Cases come from the organizations that take part in Sprint Innovation Festival. Our project team members offer their help to the organizations in fine tuning with their case before its announcement, but the initial idea for it comes from the organizations themselves.

What does ”a case” mean?

Case is a question, issue or problem that an organization is currently working on in real life, and is given to student teams of the event by a company representative. In the past cases have varied from developing the residential area of Hiedanranta, Tampere, to creating a reusable, transmittable gift package for children. The cases are real, meaning that the organizations don’t just make them up – they are actually problems which the companies are trying to solve and want innovative solutions for.

What does this mean in plain language?

All student participants will be divided into groups containing students from different fields of study and from Universities of Tampere, about 6 to 8 people in total. These teams will be given a real life case provided by a company. Teams have five days to come up with a solution to their case, which they will get to showcase on the last day of the week. Best solution from each case will win a prize of 1000 €!

What is Sprint Innovation Festival?

Sprint Innovation Festival is a five day long innovation competition held annually. Formerly the event was named InnoEvent Tampere. 1000 students from the Tampere Universities work together on actual cases in teams of 6 to 8 people, in collaboration with coaches and company representatives. The goal of the event is to create innovative solutions that will help the company in question with their case in the future. In addition the participating students have a chance to network, work on real life cases and gain 2 ETCS. At the end of the week the student teams will get to pitch their ideas to the judges who decide the winner for each case. Later that evening is the Friday night Gala. Best ideas for each case will gain the team a prize of 1000 €!

Join the festival!

Become a partner for the innovation festival! Organizations involved in the event get to meet future talents and build their brand as employers within the Tampere higher education community. As a partner, you can present your challenge to the teams, sponsor the event or act as an event supporter.

Yes, count me in