FestINNO - a cross-border event that brings together more than 650 spectators every year

FestINNO  - a cross-border event that brings together more than 650 spectators every year

The 13th Innovation Festival was held virtually in Slovenia for the third year in a row, while the Italian part of the event was performed by colleagues from the University of Udine in physical form and partly hybrid. There was outstanding content, great guests, interesting talks, debates, lectures, workshops, round tables, and a competition for the most innovative business ideas of INNOchallenge students. More than 650 spectators from Slovenia, Italy, and the wider Europe watched and listened in various ways. Slovenian and international students, entrepreneurs, representatives of support institutions, and the interested public visited 7 different sections, in three different languages - Slovenian, Italian, and English.

The event was co-organized by the Italian partner institution, the University of Udine, for the second time in a row, which significantly contributed to the content and participation, which is an important step towards realizing the vision of the regional business event. In addition to the above, the content was contributed by many individuals and organizations that we consider to be co-creators of the event. This year's red thread of the event was sustainability, and the subtitle of the event was "Development of entrepreneurial opportunities for a sustainable future".

This sustainable INNOchallenge also brought the competition winners selected by the commission. Contest finalists and their ideas: Greener (student team: Anise Lea Dolar, Nika Bučan, Kaja Prelovšek, Kama Saje, Lea Korošec, Maša Nedoh), Food & Wood (Danijel Rapuš, Urša Uršič, Višnja Šiljić, Anela Bajrić, Nejc Božič), Fishing gear (Lievens Runeke, Isidora Živković), 3D printed coral reef & Scuba Diving School (Ivana Šurlan, Janko Kovačević) and Blue Adventure (Erika Bric, Ana Bitić, Ingrid Scozzai, Sandra Spasojević). Among the mentioned finalists of the competition, the participating audience chose the idea of Greener (mentor Prof. Doris Gomezelj Omerzel) as the winner at the final event by online voting, and the second and third place was shared by Blue Adventure and 3D printed coral reef & Scuba Diving School. The competition was conducted in conjunction with The Regional Development Centre Koper (RDC Koper), which also contributed rich prizes to the winners.

The winners of the Greener idea commented: »Greener is a company that helps through advice and workshops other companies to use more sustainable packaging and contribute to a better future. The idea for Greener came because we regularly order everything from the internet, but at the same time, we don't care that we pollute the environment with our orders. All finalists presented great ideas. With such competition, winning is really something we are extremely proud of. «

The Blue Adventure group were very enthusiastic about the event: »FestINNO brought us new experiences, knowledge, and, the most important part, fun! We had so much fun from the beginning through the end, but the most satisfying part was to see that the idea that we built through months of work is plausible and real. This challenge made us realize that we are creative, persistent, and curious. Even though we did not take this challenge seriously, we poured so much passion into making something that could actually be real in the future.«