Sesame Summit 2026 – application open

The heart of Nordic innovation

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Photo by Gorm K Gaare

What’s the story behind Oslo Innovation Week (OIW)?

Since 2005, Oslo Innovation Week has been gathering startups, corporates, investors, innovation drivers, tech experts and creatives in the city centre of Oslo. Our first ever digital Oslo Innovation Week last year attracted 25,000 attendees from over 50 countries.  Oslo Innovation Week invites you to the heart of Nordic innovation  – the home of Kahoot, No Isolation and Otovo. An arena for facilitating actions and thought provoking ideas for bold and new innovation. Connect and experience with pioneering entrepreneurs, founders, investors and business leaders. Join us in bringing together a smart compact Nordic capital with high quality of life and easy access to nature alongside world leading startups, technology innovation, climate friendly solutions and entrepreneurship  – to the global stage.

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Photo by Gorm K Gaare

What role is OIW playing in furthering the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals?

Every single event must meet at least one of the 17 goals. The UN SDGs are key to everything we work with and believe in. This year we will have various climate tech specific events including a Nordic Climate Tech Demo Day which will feature the best nine Nordic Climate Tech growth companies presenting to a panel of investors from EQT, Pale Blue Dot, Voima Ventures and Ecosia. The one common goal for everybody on stage is that their sustainable solutions and investments will help reduce carbon emissions.

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Photo by Gorm K Gaare

Which of this year’s 80+ events are you most looking forward to?

Well aside from the Climate Tech Demo Day I mentioned above, I am also really looking forward to the diverse range of events happening around Oslo including one of the worlds fastest growing solar panel companies Otovo hosting an event about scaling your product and product organization during fast growth. We also have a great event called Scaleup Workshop where the best scaleup founders and investors meet to discuss the big growth subjects such as international expansion and company organization amongst other things. We are also really excited about all of the hybrid events where we will be able to gather the most important Nordic founders and investors as well as allowing an international audience via our digital program.

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Photo by Gorm K Gaare

What’s the most exciting thing about OIW for founders?

I think it is has to be the chance to network and meet the right people to help their companies grow. We have countless amazing panel discussions, workshops, conferences and networking events gathering innovators and business drivers – we put extra emphasis on creating smaller arenas where founders can take home some tangible learnings as well as building networks and who knows, meet their next investment or their newest CTO or co-founder. There is a real buzz this year to meet again after 18 months of almost no physical events in Norway.

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Photo by Gorm K Gaare

How are you planning to facilitate networking opportunities between attendees?

Since most will be hybrid, many events will focus on creating excellent digital content that in addition have smaller, exclusive physical audiences. The pandemic hasn’t ended so digital content is vital for our international attendees with many panels for example including both physical and digital speakers – we make it all work! There will also be various physical networking events that take place before or after digital events and of course the odd digital only events where networking will moderated via various digital event platforms.


Interested in finding out more about this incredible annual event in Oslo? Check out our Sesamers profile of Oslo Innovation Week 2021

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It’s not just about displaying finished products; the focus here is on creating an environment where startups can connect with VCs, retail partners, buyers, and over 4,500 journalists. This ecosystem brings together everything from AI-powered home devices, smartphones, laptops and sustainable products to smart health solutions and wearable technology. With dedicated spaces for both demonstrations and retail networking, IFA Next bridged the gap between cutting-edge research and retail opportunities, a critical pathway for European hardware startups. While cities like London, Berlin, and Amsterdam host numerous tech conferences, none of those events match IFA Next’s specific focus on hardware innovation or its ability to connect startups directly with the global consumer electronics retail ecosystem. Samsung’s strong AI focus Samsung has put in a lot of time and effort into comprehensively integrating AI across its consumer product ecosystem. 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The combination of established electronics giants setting innovation benchmarks, ambitious startups developing market-ready solutions, and innovative presentation formats showed that IFA Next has become more than Europe’s largest consumer tech startup showcase: It’s evolved into an essential preview of European technology leadership. For anyone interested in understanding where European consumer technology innovation is heading, IFA Next represents the definitive annual checkpoint. The innovations showcased here by European and international startups will likely be the everyday products of tomorrow, and Europe’s leadership in making that transformation happen is becoming undeniably clear. As Europe’s premier consumer tech startup showcase, IFA Next

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