Finnish foodtech community gathers at Shoots & Giggles MAKEathon

  • 6 November 2020
  • Foodtech
The 36-hour long online event on 13 November will see Finland’s foodtech entrepreneurs create working prototypes

Foodtechies Finland, an online community for aspiring foodtech entrepreneurs, start-ups, and innovators, is hosting Shoots & Giggles MAKEathon, a 36-hour long online event gathering the country’s foodtech community under the theme of sustainable food. The event will give away one full pass to attend the Sustainable Foods Conference.

Scheduled to run from midday on Friday 13 November to the night on Saturday 14 November, Shoots & Giggles MAKEathon will see participants create working prototypes, addressing the following challenges:

  • Vertical and urban farming
  • Food waste
  • Sustainable seafood

The Shoots & Giggles MAKEathon follows on from the Hackaton organised in the Summer in which Finnish entrepreneurs got together to try and envision the future of food and how can they do now to address today’s challenges.

“This time our team wanted to make an event that really emphasised the collaborative, cooperative spirit that we have seen in many of the online gaming and programming communities,” said Vivian Leung, founder of Foodtechies Finland. “We also wanted to make this an event that is by the community, for the community.”

Leung said Shoots & Giggles MAKEathon will give prizes to participants, however, the spirit of the event goes beyond winners and losers.

“We want this to be an event where people get to know each other, challenge what they might know about the world of sustainable foods and foodtech and are encouraged to experiment and play with new ideas,” she says. “Most importantly though, we want this to be an event where they have fun.”

What is a MAKEathon?

Foodtechies Finland’s MAKEathon takes inspiration from the hackathons in the gaming and programming developer communities – it’s a hackathon with a creative twist for the foodtech community.

Register today to participate in the event

Leung explained: “Many of the hackathons weren’t always about solving really big business challenges, having big sponsors, or even having great prizes. A lot of them were just a bunch of people wanting to get together and do something different.

“Maybe they have been stuck in one project or one task for a long time and need a break, or maybe they want to experiment with a new tool, or maybe it was just a fun way for them to chill with other coders and gamers.

“We decided to have something a little more casual. Just the food and foodtech community getting together, testing ideas, and literally trying things for ‘Shoots & Giggles’,” she concluded.