New Head of Sales and marketing

After successfully leading the sales as part of the SHIFT team for two festivals Hanna Sormunen has taken over the sales and marketing as whole from the start of October as the previous Head of Marketing Anja Karppinen started her maternity leave.

Marketing supports sales and they are always connected. I am excited to be able to lead the two important teams as they are the backbone of creating successful events.

Sormunen has been working with SHIFT since 2020 with strong performance in sales even in the middle of global pandemic working closely with marketing. The new role enables Sormunen to utilise her strong background from B2B marketing and sales to create growth as the event industry starts to recover. “Marketing supports sales and they are always connected. I am excited to be able to lead the two important teams as they are the backbone of creating successful events. By having the two roles combined I have the possibility to create a wholesome strategy to support our growth plans and strengthen the bond of these two roles”, explains Sormunen.

SHIFT Business Festival is one of Finland’s largest business events, which has brought together growth and transformation-inspired companies and experts in Turku since 2016 to network, share their expertise and be inspired to develop the future of business and the world. SHIFT is created annually with an agile core team, trainees consisting of future experts and a volunteer group.

SHIFT grew strongly from the start year onwards from an event of 1000 visitors to + 3000 visitors in 2019. After the world stopped in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, SHIFT did something exceptional for the event industry and did not take a break from the event, but organised a completely virtual event in an unprecedented way using 3D technology with 1,000 participants joining the event online. SHIFT was the only major growth company event held in Finland in 2020.

The 2021 event was organized as a hybrid, taking safety into account, and it attracted +1,000 visitors from Finland and Europe face-to-face in Turku and online. SHIFT 2022 will be held on 24-25.8 In Turku at a location which is still a secret. Ticket sales for the event will open soon.

Further information:

Hanna Sormunen, Head of Sales and Marketing, +35840 775 4258, hanna@theshift.fi
Sini Toivonen, CEO, tel. +35840 679 2626, sini@theshift.fi