On Wednesday 4th of October,  Turun Teknologiakiinteistöt Oy (Turku Technology Properties) became the main shareholder of SHIFT Events Oy, the company behind SHIFT Business Festival. After the arrangement, Teknologiakiinteistöt owns 70 percent of SHIFT Events’ shares, as SHIFT ry, the founder of the event and SHIFT Events oy, keeps a 30 percent ownership of the company.

With the arrangement, SHIFT Business Festival will become part of Teknologiakiinteistöt and Joki community brand family. This also means changes in the organization, as the COO of Teknologiakiinteistöt, Antti Asteljoki, starts as the chairman of SHIFT Events Oy board and Teknologiakiinteistöt community manager Carita Varjonen, also responsible for the events portfolio, as the CEO of the company.

The current board will stay in place, including the previous chairman of the board and one of the original founders of SHIFT, Joonas Suominen, who will continue as a member of the board. In the same vein, SHIFT’s existing team, Jutta Ruusunen and Pyry Kangas will continue developing the event as part of Teknologiakiinteistöt. 

Asteljoki sees SHIFT as complementing the brand family and further strengthening Turku Science Park’s position as a focal point for research, the business world, and higher education.
– SHIFT is an essential part of the business community, and with a bigger ownership than before, we want to ensure that this will also be the case in the future. SHIFT diversifies Turku Science Park’s ecosystem. Therefore, we have a big desire to develop and strengthen the event even further, says Asteljoki. 

The previous sole owner SHIFT ry welcomes the new majority owner with enthusiasm. After difficult corona years, this arrangement now enables the organisation to focus on developing the event further and making it bigger than ever, with the necessary resources.

We have a strong desire to invest in SHIFT now and in the future

During the fall, SHIFT’s strategy will be revisited. Together with SHIFT’s stakeholders, the aim is to define the ideal value the event can and should provide to the business community.

– We have a strong desire to invest in SHIFT now and in the future. SHIFT will continue to look into the future, taking advantage of our strong connection to Turku’s business scene. As a B2B event, SHIFT will be interesting to an increasingly large number of visitors.

A taste of what’s to come was already given at SHIFT 2023, organized in Visitor Centre Joki. The event with a programme stretching across industry boundaries culminated in an evening party, where JVG, a major name in Finnish rap, filled Jussinaukio at the heart of Science Park.

– The strength of technology properties is to bring together different people, companies, and organizations in a way that cannot be found elsewhere in Finland. When this is combined with SHIFT, we can create something unprecedented, Asteljoki promises.