Entrepreneur, speaker and host, working across creativity, culture and business. I make ideas real, and make people care about them.
Founder of ODDfest · Co-founder of Ambitious.Africa and Norders
Good ideas need people who care.
AI is putting more of the work of writing, designing and building within reach. As making gets easier, the question gets sharper: what is worth making, and why would anyone care?
That second question is my work. On stage, in the room, and all the way to something built.
How I work
I was the basketball player who never grew tall enough. So I played point guard: read the floor, make everyone else better.
I’ve done the same since, on bigger courts: startups from my first year at Hanken, then ventures, a festival and rooms full of people who don’t usually meet. The method hasn’t changed. Put an idea into the world, see what happens, make the next one better.
The basketball part: Svenska Yle and Keski-Uusimaa, November 2024.
Founder and CEO, with the ODD team
2024 · The idea, on the record
In 2024, I told Svenska Yle that I wanted to bring the best of the startup world into arts and culture: places to meet, exchange ideas and build together.
Svenska Yle · 3 November 2024 · Julie Ebbe Ronny Eriksson vill ta kulturen till uppstartsvärlden: ”Det finns pengar” The interview: startup experience brought into culture, an event planned for the following June, and a cultural hub. Read the 2024 interview (opens in a new tab)2025 · The first edition
In 2025, we made the first ODDfest happen in Helsinki. Artists, speakers, partners and audiences brought the idea into the same spaces.
2,600+ participants. allthingsodd.co (opens in a new tab)
The ODDfest 2026 launch, 28 January 2026.
2026 · An event and a place
By 2026, the work included ODDfest and ODDference, and ODDspace in Vallila: a place for people to work, meet and make things together.
June 2026: 150+ acts across central Helsinki, and two days of ODDference at Bio Rex, made with a core team, guest curators, volunteers and partners.
Figures: allthingsodd.co.
The year-round part of ODD: workspace, studios, meeting rooms and an event floor, where people from art, design, music, media, technology and business work, host things and cross paths. A pilot, shaped by the people using it.
allthingsodd.co/oddspace (opens in a new tab)
An interview, then a festival, then a place. Built from the ground up with a team, collaborators and people willing to join in. That’s what I bring to other people’s ideas.
The talk: From audience to movement The ODDfest case Bring it to your project
Before ODD, and beside it
01 · Connecting across places
It grew out of the startup incubators three of us from Hanken were building in Rwanda. From spring 2020: events in entrepreneurship, education and entertainment, linking young changemakers in Africa and the Nordics.
Co-founded with Peter Vesterbacka, Vincent Forsman and Victor Lindahl.
02 · Making ideas viable
A creative marketing agency: film and content for clients.
I co-founded the Venture Studio. At Hanken Business Lab, I’ve led fundraising of more than €1.5 million across multiple sources, and since 2025 I’ve been the lab’s Development Manager.
03 · Bringing people into the room
In Finnish, Swedish and English.
Stages
Public voice
(opens in a new tab) News
Ronny Erikssons udda kulturfestival får 200 000 euro
Hufvudstadsbladet, 13 April 2026. The Alfred Kordelin Foundation’s two-year grant to ODDfest. Card photo: Cata Portin / HBL.
Column
”Teknologia ilman merkitystä muuttuu helposti raaka-aineeksi.” In English, our argument Finland builds technology well. The contest is moving to what automation can’t answer: what feels real, earns trust and builds community. That is competitive advantage.
Suomi osaa rakentaa teknologiaa – mutta ymmärtääkö se, mikä maailmaa kiinnostaa?
Kasvuryhmä, 2026. By Ronny Eriksson and Aki Pöntinen.
Radio
Väärinpäin, my Sunday programme on Radio Helsinki, spring 2025.
Also on the record
Work with me
Six careers, one position: read the room, make everyone in it better. At your event, it usually starts with a talk.
Theme 1
Aikaa olla ihminen – kiinnostavuus on uusi kilpailuetu
What to hand to the machine, and what to do with the hours it gives back.
Theme 2
Yleisöstä liikkeeksi
How an audience becomes people who show up and build with you.
Theme 3
Erilaisuus on etu
Why the ones who don’t fit are the early signal. For young people, and those trying to reach them.
The story keynote
My own story, told so your audience sees its own odd thing as the advantage.
Most booked: From Idea to Innovation · Luovuus strategisena työkaluna · Nuoret ja yrittäjyys – rohkeus tarttua tilaisuuteen.
“Esitys oli ajatuksia herättävä, innostava ja inspiroiva.” Annina Ylitalo, Valio. The full quote
Discuss a keynoteFor a team with a concept, story, pitch or decision that needs to move.
For an event, panel or programme that needs its conversation held.
Väärinpäin, Radio Helsinki: twelve Sunday episodes, 2025 (opens in a new tab)
For a venture, organisation or cultural initiative with an idea to shape, test or build.
For conferences, companies, cities, universities, cultural organisations and founders.
Tell me what you have in mind. I’ll tell you honestly whether I’m the right person, and where we’d start.
Thanks — your enquiry has been received.
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