Our story
Each year Xamk students have played a big role in organizing *ship Startup Festival.
it offers the chance to learn and experience entrepreneurship.
9 Festivals 950 startups 150 mentors
Us over the years
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2015
We piloted the event with invitation-only participation of 35 young entrepreneurs from entrepreneurship societies (ES’s) in Helsinki, Kouvola, Lappeenranta and Turku.
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2017
We organized Ambassadors’ program and an online competition which attracted 930 young entrepreneurs and 650 startups across 90 countries. The 2017 event had the participation of nearly 150 young entrepreneurs and two hackathon challenges in collaboration with local companies.
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2019
For the *ship Startup Festival 5th edition of *ship we enhanced Mentoring program by adding seats to Clinics and doubling the number of Master Classes. Pitch Captain Competition was brought back to Kotka Market Square and the winner was rewarded with 5000€ and two tickets to Web Summit in Lisbon!
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2021
*ship was organized completely online that year. Using the Deal Room -event platform our Mentoring Program and the Pitch Captain Competition will reach out all over the world. With a completely new online platform our participants can find everything in one place: set up meetings with *ship mentors and network virtually throughout the two-day event. The Pitch Captain Competition was hosted live on the same platform on the 13th of August.
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2016
We expanded our horizons by piloting Ambassadors’ program for international change-makers and aspiring entrepreneurs. The 2016 event had the participation of 100+ young entrepreneurs.
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2018
Master Classes and Clinics were brought to the program. Master Classes and Clinics were done together with partners and mentors. We increased partnerships with accelerators, by having 8 accelerators bringing teams to *ship. With accelerator partners and through our open application, we had altogether 50 teams taking part to *ship 2018.
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2020
*ship Startup Festival was organized in hybrid mode from 12th to 14th of August. The Mentoring program and semifinals were held completely online with a new web version of the *ship App, and the TOP 10 finalists were invited to compete for the grand prize of 5 000€ to the Market Square in Kotka on the 14th of August.
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2022
It was possible to organize *ship again after challenging covid times. This year the concept was brought to life at a new venue at Höyrypanimo in Kotka city. A fully international team of students did yet again an amazing job organizing the event gathering visitors even from over seas! This years new concepts were *ships own expo area called The Showroom and our Networking Lounge.
