BioBoosters hackathon is a well-establish business-driven open innovation process where companies find partners and solutions for their sustainability challenges with a turnkey service starting with an open call for innovation and ending with a pitching competition. With nearly 30 BioBoosters hackathons organised, the open innovation process is well-established and tested.
Last autumn, the BioBoosters team took on the challenge of re-crafting the process as a workshop suitable as a side-event for networking and startup events to bring innovative people together for an open innovation sprint. On October 10, 2024, we organized a 90-minutes mini-hackathon to tackle a challenge from Lidl at the largest sustainability festival of the Nordics, Impact Day, in Tallinn. A new (never tested) concept based on the 10-week open innovation process pressed to just 90 minutes. What are we doing here? How did we end up doing this? What if nobody wants to take part?
Overcoming our worries in the face of the unknow, we ended up creating a new event concept useful for ideation and inspiration of companies’ sustainability agendas with a group of innovative and creative stakeholders, such as startups. With this article, we welcome you to join the journey far to the discomfort zone where the magic of innovation happens, and ideas come to live. We share the story of our journey that celebrates the startup spirit, quick testing, networking and co-operation that made it possible, and successful.
From startup festival to sustainability festival in the land of the unicorns
The BioBoosters by Jamk team first got introduced to the Impact Day while networking at another Estonian festival, the sTARTUp Day, on January 24–26. A highlight of the Estonian startup scene, the sTARTUp Day of 2024 hosted over 320 startups, 150 speakers, 220+ investors, and drew in a crowd of 3400+ participants from 45 different countries (sTARTUp Days, n.d.). We were at the scene to promote the launching BioBoosters accelerator program and other startup activities. Through a matchmaking app, Brella, there were 1910 matchmaking meetings held at the event – and among them, the meetup between BioBoosters and Impact Day (sTARTUp Days, n.d.). In the brief discussion, we found a common interest in “impact stories” and sustainability innovations, as well as the hackathons as an open and collaborative ideation format.
Impact Day interested us in BioBoosters due to the topic and target group relevance. As the largest sustainability festival in the Nordic and Baltic regions, the event is aimed at companies, investors, entrepreneurs, and influencers working in various sectors of sustainable development. Its purpose is to showcase the latest innovations in the field and create opportunities for international networking. Event is held annually in Tallinn, Estonia, with a program that includes keynote speeches, workshops, and panel discussions. Additionally, one of the key sections of the event is the EXPO area, where interested companies and organizations, such as colleges and universities, can present their products, solutions, and services to promote sustainable development. (Impact Day, n.d.)
Onboarding the Impact Days
Based on the discussions during spring 2025, we got interested of the Impact Days as a potential transfer event for the results of the Interreg BSR co-funded BioBoosters project. Coordinated by BioBoosters by Jamk bioeconomy business accelerator, the BioBoosters project connects nine regions across the Baltic Sea Region to organise 18 business-driven BioBoosters Hackathons to find co-operation partners and solutions to tackle circular transition challenges of companies from bioeconomy sectors.
To share the results of the first nine hackathons and the sustainability impact made via the launched innovation partnerships, our team opted to explore the Impact Days offer. The offer included an Expo stand and a workshop slot in the program for the BioBoosters team – represented by Jamk University of Applied Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences and Pärnu County Development Centre. Together, we would deliver the first-ever BioBoosters Hackathon in 90 minutes. Samuel Põldaru from the Impact Day team set out to connect with the Impact Day partners to find us a challenge provider – a company with a sustainability challenge fit for open innovation.
Among the interesting companies, Lidl Eesti rose to the occasion – and presented us with a tricky challenge. Food waste is a critical challenge for retailers like Lidl. One of the difficult products to handle are perishable items such as fruits, vegetables, dairy, and bakery products, which demand accurate management due to their short shelf life. The issue is further compounded by the handling of packaged foods, where only a small fraction may be unfit for sale. That can lead to disposal of entire packages, resulting in significant waste even when the majority remains consumable.
Discussing with Lidl, it was clear that a lot has been done already to minimize food waste; smart ordering and discount pricing being in the forefront of impacting the waste volumes. Technology plays a crucial role in food waste management by enhancing inventory tracking, forecasting demand, and optimizing supply chains. However, it would be difficult to make further improvements especially due to the constrained and optimized employee resources. As emphasized by the Lidl Eesti team, employee resources are constrained and highly optimized in retail, and the personnel may not have time to sort manually through imperfect perishables. As a result, unsorted packages are sent directly to waste management systems or, at best, biogas stations.
Need for innovation to decrease food waste
The challenge defined by Lidl Eesti was to propose an efficient system to reduce food waste from unsold perishables. The idea could involve technology, partnership solutions with minimum workload and space in Lidl. Social innovations and aspects of food waste management were also welcomed. Lidl was setting key criteria for the innovative solutions that align with their operational and sustainability goals. The ideal proposal should leverage digital technology, scalability, ensuring effective management of significant quantities of perishable goods across various locations. Any solution must actively contribute to reducing food waste and environmental impact to Lidl’s sustainability initiatives. Also, cost-effectiveness should be emphasized, showcasing clear financial advantages through better resource management and waste reduction. Very ambitious goals for a 90-minute hackathon, right?
The food waste challenge is part of a global sustainability agenda, and a sustainability challenge where we can all play our role. UN’s Sustainable Development Goals guide us to halve the amount of food waste by 2030 (United Nations, N.d.). It is a sustainability challenge that requires action from a vast group of actors, including the citizens. Worldwide, an estimated 1.3 billion tonnes of food waste is generated annually, and food waste is a serious problem globally, affecting both the environment and the economy. The production of food consumes many valuable resources, such as water, nutrients, and energy, and it also occupies a large amount of land. Food waste also produces a potent greenhouse gas, methane, as it decomposes (Pirtonen, 2021).
In the EU, over 59 million tonnes food waste is generated annually and valued at approximately 132 billion euros, underscores a pressing issue of sustainability and resource efficiency. This equates to 132 kg per inhabitant, highlighting the need for systemic changes in consumption patterns and food management practices to mitigate environmental impact and enhance economic viability. (European Commission, n.d.). Recycling waste is one easy way to reduce the problems caused by waste. Properly recycled food waste can be utilized, for example, in the production of bioenergy. Unrecycled waste often must be incinerated to be used in some way. Properly sorted waste, such as cardboard and plastic, can be efficiently utilized, thereby reducing the need for new raw materials. (Skljarov, 2024.)
The food waste challenge is part of a global sustainability agenda, and a sustainability challenge where we can all play our role. UN’s Sustainable Development Goals guide us to halve the amount of food waste by 2030.
Retaining value while minimizing time & effort
Now we have the challenge to tackle. However, the question remained: How do we adjust the 10-week hackathon into 90 minutes? What offer can we deliver to participants? In our concept design, the idea was that while we maybe were not able to launch tangible business co-operation at a rate typical to the standard BioBoosters hackathon, we could provide the networking value. We could offer the teams a chance to enter a dialogue with a large enterprise; and we could offer the large enterprise glimpses of out-of-box ideas and new insights to their sustainability challenge. We could offer all participants visibility on the BioBoosters LinkedIn and Impact Day’s social media. For BioBoosters, we would gain visibility and brand recognition; and of course, we would extend our service offer by a new open innovation tool.
It was definitely hard to include challenge introduction, team building, mentoring, pitching, judging, and winner’s announcement with feedback to teams all in 90 minutes. Not to forget, you need also some time to create the atmosphere, to give the instruction and to take the group photos. Not much room for errors.
Luckily, we had our stellar partners from Estonian University of Life Sciences and Pärnu County Development Centre ready for anything at the site with us. Apart from the moderators and organisers, we had one mentor per team representing Jamk University of Applied Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences and Latvian University of Life Sciences and Technologies. Jury consisted of representatives from Lidl Eesti and Impact Day. Our Estonian partners had invited two startups to join the hackathon, while we expected to get other two teams from event participants interested to join ad hoc.
This was a big concern for us in the planning phase. Would we get participants brave enough to come and preparate a pitch with a team of strangers in 30 minutes co-working time? Would our communication efforts via the Impact Day channels reach enough potential innovators? What if they cannot come up with an idea proposal in the limited time?
Outcomes as planned but way beyond the expected
What happened was what we envisioned when designing the concept. However, it was not what we expected. Against our doubts, it was a great success. We had a full house with two teams formed by walk-in participants connecting experts from nine organisations. All teams were able to come up with solution proposals responding to the challenge; one team even presented four ideas. The ad hoc teams engaged in fast team building and ideation supported by the mentoring. This 30-minute sprint even resulted in the winning proposal. All pitch presentations were convincing, relevant, and worth the jury’s time. In fact, the jury had a hard time deciding on the winner. The serious and careful deliberation by jury was in fact our main time-management challenge. Excitement was there. New contacts were made. It was fun.
Making the concept work took a lot of careful planning, and in the end, a lot of improvisation and flexibility from our amazing host, Toomas Toodu from Pärnu County Development Centre. Success factors include startup minded participants, flexible and professional organising team, intuitive digital workspace at Howspace, a real-life challenge and a jury invested in solving the problem.
Embracing the startup culture
Our trial of the 90-minutes hackathon resulted in a proof-of-concept available for development projects and service sales of the BioBoosters team. An important takeaway of the journey is that rapid testing makes sense. A rapid test for startups refers to a quick and efficient way of evaluating a startup’s business concept, product-market fit, or overall viability. These tests aim to provide fast insights to help entrepreneurs make decisions early in the process, saving time and resources. Startups can make data-driven decisions and adjust their approach to improve their chances of success in the market. We highly recommend this approach also for other organisations.
Applying rapid testing is highly beneficial for several reasons. Our findings align with McCoy et al. (2012) stating that rapid testing approach allows for faster iteration, real-world validation, and more informed decision-making, helping these organizations optimize resources and improve outcomes. Whether through customer feedback, prototypes, or digital testing, this approach enables these institutes to quickly refine their products and technologies, accelerating innovation while ensuring higher success rates (McCoy et al. 2012).
The great comeback: where and when?
The experience on organizing 90-minute hackathon was thrilling. Even though, event planning always involves stressful moments and the doubt, have we had recognized all the necessary aspects of an event, from the initial concept to execution. As a conclusion, 90-minute hackathon works perfectly for getting potential customers and raising the awareness of open innovation excellence. It is also a perfect teaser for full-scale hackathon process and the feeling, which you get from these hackathons. The main goal in “minihackathons” is to create buzz, foster engagement, and deliver results that highlight challenge providers’ sustainability mission. An engaged and invested company client is a key to a successful delivery.
The next big question is, where and when we will experience the 90 minutes ‘BioBoosters impact hackathon’ again.