IdeaForum is a pitching competition being organised by Venture Cup Finland on the 29th of October in Helsinki. The idea is simple of course, you have two minutes to pitch your idea to a group of investors (the jury) and you cannot use any additional materials, except for a piece of paper (or perhaps you have the product available at hand).

If you wish to participate, you should send in your details by the 27th of October to this address including participant’s name, phone number and the idea that is going to be presented. Participants will be contacted by phone. The grand prize for two minutes’ of work is 1000€.

The jury is made up of five people, Moaffak Ahmed (Veturi Growth Partners), Teemu Seppälä (Helsinki University of Technology/Innovation centre), Petri Laine (Vera Venture), Juho Kinnunen (Eqvitec) and Antti Vilpponen (ArcticStartup). More information on the event here (the english part is at the bottom).

The investment groups Ambient Sound Investments or ASI for short (from Skype fame) and Seed Fund Vera make an equity investment in Senseg, a Finnish company developing a breakthrough touch interface technology. The sum of the investment remains undisclosed.

Senseg is one of the startups whose journey to Israel to meet Israeli investors we have been following. It only makes sense that Senseg comes out with the announcement right before they pitch to the local VCs on Wednesday, May the 21th to capture the full benefit of the announcement.

Senseg has developed a new technology to produce touch-like sensations. The technology has a wide range of applications, for example generating the feeling of virtual buttons on smooth surfaces such as mobile phones and other touch screens. Iphone with a keyboard you can actually feel, anyone?

Dr. Ville Mäkinen, Senseg’s CEO, described the technology nothing short of revolutionary:

Senseg’s technology is something completely different. It is a novel communications technology based on human sensation. [...] The technology has unrepresented potential. I can be licenced easily and used in hundreds of different ways and applications. Senseg’s technology can therefore initiate a significant and fundamental change in how consumer gadgets are designed and used.

According to Moaffak Ahmed, Chairman of Senseg, the technology will be available for a select group of equipment manufacturers in the second half of 2008 and be officially launched when the first products are introduced to the market, which he expects to be in 2009.

Arctic Startup will follow Sensig and other Finnish startups throughout the week and report on how they manage to attract attension from the VC scene in Israel.