The sixth edition of Media Honeypot, held on February 14, 2019 at the Sofia Future Farm on Sofiankatu in Helsinki, provided a comprehensive view of the European media start-up landscape, and its investors, in a full day of sessions, pitches, and speed-meetings. The value of having major European media houses, from Axel Springer to Bonnier and Schibsted, and leaders of the mobile gaming scene, including Small Giant Games’ Timo Soininen and Next Games’ Teemu Huutanen, as well as ventures from Belarus to London, is clear: the next big thing in media innovation is more likely to emanate from Europe than from North America.

I led a panel, ‘AI in Media,’ that featured panelists from various sides of the AI media spectrum: blockchain media distribution (Cedric Monier, CEO of iKAST.io); media curation (Romain Eude, CEO of Utelly), and AI service provisioning (Laura Avonius, founder, Fragity). The discussion of how AI can enable new services demonstrated the depth of European media start-up leadership in AI.

As always, Media Honeypot founder Heikki Rotko created an atmosphere of congenial spirit, capping the day off with a sauna session at Löyly, followed by a late-night session at the famous Kaarle nightclub.

Chris Pfaff, Heikki Rotko, chairman/founder of Media Honeypot, and Vinay Solanki, head of Channel 4 Ventures, at Löyly, Helsinki

Chris Pfaff listens to a pitch from holler.live founding partner Iva Sakarova in the Media Honeypot Deal Room

Two views of a selfie: Romain Eude, Utelly; Cedric Monier, iKAST.io; Chris Pfaff, and Laura Avonius, Fragity, after the ‘AI in Media’ panel

Cedric Monier (center), CEO of iKAST.io, discusses the implementation of AI with blockchain media distribution on the ‘AI in Media’ panel

Romain Eude (left), CEO of Utelly, discusses Utelly’s use of AI for media curation on the ‘AI in Media’ panel

Laura Avonius, CEO of Fragity, discusses media firm’s use of AI for data refining, on the ‘AI in Media’ panel

Two long views of the ‘AI in Media’ panel

Chris Pfaff (right) discusses the ‘AI arms race’ in the media industry on the ‘AI in Media’ panel

Credentials and coffee at Media Honeypot 2019

Heikki Rotko, founder and chairman of Media Honeypot (right), welcomes the crowd at Media Honeypot in Helsinki, as Janina Salo-Glasemann (center), CEO of Media Honeypot, and Ralph Simon (left), CEO of Mobilium Global, look on

The 3^rd annual Media Honeypot Helsinki, the gathering of the European media start-up tribes, was another remarkable showing of the strength of media innovation in Europe. This year’s event, held on February 15th at the Crowne Plaza Helsinki, did much more than match the leading media companies in Europe with the leading media start-ups – it reinforced what many of us in the media and telecom industry have known for years: that Europe’s broadcasters are the most progressive in the world, and have been natural incubators for some of the most creative applications of media tech. With last year’s opening of Media City Bergen in Norway, there is much more activity on generating clearly defined start-ups that can address tomorrow’s needs for media companies.

Tomas Franzén, CEO of Bonnier, presents his keynote at Media Honeypot 2018

The Media Honeypot program – expertly curated by Janina Salo-Glasemann and her team – was emceed by the estimable Ralph Simon, whose bon mots in Finnish and Swedish brought more than a few chuckles from the crowd. Tomas Franzén, CEO of Bonnier, discussed how the company has managed to move into the digital space, while also nurturing a venture arm. He reminded the audience that, at its core, Bonnier’s chief job is to promote and protect democracy; a welcome message during these times. Moritz Holzgraefe, with Axel Springer, was one of several major publishers on the lookout for new startups; his company has certainly led the way in transforming a proud old publisher into a digital powerhouse. Laura Avonius, co-founder of Data Refinery, showed how her unit at Aller Media turned the company around by using its own data and spun it off as Data Refinery.

Laura Avonius (left), co-founder and CEO of Data Refinery, presents Data Refinery’s case for publishers

Anthony Herman, now heading up Amazon Web Services in the Nordics, discussed his background as a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, and how that informs his current role. Trygve Refvem, head of MTG Ignite, discussed what a broadcast group looks for in start-up development.

Valerie Vlasenko, from Arctic Startup, introduces the pitching finalists at Media Honeypot

Yet, for all of the prescient case studies and presentations and discussions regarding the next step for European media companies and start-ups, the most impressive aspect of Media Honeypot was the line-up of companies participating in the event. Frankly, one would have been hard put to identify an event that could present the likes of what we saw at the Crowne Plaza Helsinki last Thursday. From Stream Time, developer of a true cross-service EPG to Bibblio, provider of a content relevance and recommendation platform to Adlaunch, creator of an AI-based ad creation platform, there was a surfeit of talent and vision to be matched with the right media company.

And, yes, the pitching competition presented five finalists – Cloudbounce, Utelly, Kieku, Bibblio and Valossa – that virtually advertised the event for anyone paying attention: the leading AI media start-ups are in Europe. Valossa convincingly won the pitching competition, with founder/CEO Mika Rautiainen giving a clear reason for why Valossa delivers value for media companies.

The winner of the Media Honeypot 2018 Pitching Competition was Valossa. Here are, from Valossa: Sami Niski (left), VP of Sales; Mika Rautiainen, founder/CEO (center), and Tommi Karjalainen (right), business development director

Mika Rautiainen, me, and Janina Salo-Glasemann, CEO of Media Honeypot

Heikki Rotko, founder of Media Honeypot, has built something that should only expand in the coming years, as more European broadcasters and publishers seek new revenue streams.

Heikki Rotko (left), with Trygve Refvem, head of MTG Ignite, at Media Honeypot 2018