Biohacker Summit 2014 was held on 10 December at Wanha Satama, Helsinki, Finland. The event gathered 250 participants from 6 countries and 15 companies exhibiting their latest technologies, tools and services regarding biohacking, quantified self, genomics and digital health. The photographs from both Upgraded Dinner (9 Dec) and Biohacker Summit (10 Dec) are available here. Don’t miss the great interviews we did with our key speakers. Video recordings of the talks are coming soon. Join our mailing list to be notified when they are available. Welcome back in 2015! Super early bird tickets already available here.  

In today’s age there is an increasing emphasis placed on keeping a healthy balance in life. We often find that we’re pushing ourselves harder and harder to maintain a high level of performance, whether that be in the office, gym or daily life. There are many advocates for the “8+8+8=24” lifestyle. This simply means, we know that eight hours of sleep is “optimal” according to doctors, we generally work eight hour days in office and that leaves eight hours of “free time” (what is that anyway?). It happens far too often, that we find ourselves in the position of sacrificing nutrition, exercise time and rest in order to push performance levels in other areas of our lives. This is despite experiencing that “buzz” or “satisfaction” when eating a wholesome meal, exiting the gym after an intensive workout or waking up in the morning with a full tank of gas and ready to kick things off with loads of positive energy and enthusiasm. The good news is that Finland has a long standing history of using technology and innovative products to help keep the balance in life which in the end helps one to lead a truly fulfilling life and leads to maximising …

Biohacker Summit 2014 brings together a group of top companies from sports, wellness, nutrition, stress management and digital health to exhibit their products and services to biohacking enthusiasts. Heltti, Medigoo and Woblab are ambassadors of modern healthcare that focus on personal and preventative measures in the virtual environment. Heltti Heltti is an occupational healthcare provider from Finland, redefining the industry by focusing on virtual services, health coaching and quantified self to promote wellbeing and preventative measures for knowledge workers. Founded in 2013, Heltti serves organizations who are genuinely interested in the wellbeing of their personnel and eager to use online services to save their employees’ time. Heltti’s customers are coached toward independent wellbeing management with a yearly online checkup and a personal wellbeing program that is supported by Wellmo, a mobile wellness app. In case of an illness, up to 80% of cases can be handled over the phone or online on Heltti.me platform. A team of physicians, nurses, psychologists and physiotherapists serve customers in person in the company’s first clinic in Ruoholahti, Helsinki.   Medigoo Medigoo.com is a free online health information service for consumers. Launched in 2014, the website responds to the rising global trend of self-diagnostics and biohacking, aiming …

Amal Graafstra is a double RFID implantee, author of the book RFID Toys, and TEDx speaker. His interest in biohacking, RFID, and NFC began in 2005 as a simple solution to a problem. He wanted easy access to his office. He explored biometric options only to find they were too expensive, klunky, and vulnerable to vandalism. BIOHACKER SUMMIT: Amal, we are big fans and after hearing from Ruben Horbach about his experience of having the chip you created in his hand, we’re even more curious. AMAL GRAFSTRAA: The chip is built on NFC and RFID so the primary purpose is to identify the individual. What that means for most applications is access control. As in, is that person allowed to do this thing, or open this door or be here. Unlocking doors, starting vehicles, logging into computers – all of that is typical. Where it gets interesting with NFC is an application where a smartphone is everywhere which is becoming more popular. Like iphone 6 has NFC. NFC is a whole standard that allows applications to be built on that standard. What’s possible … I can’t even tell! People are building applications for NFC that I could never even think of. BIOHACKER …

Biohacker Summit 2014 brings together a group of top companies from sports, wellness, nutrition, stress management and digital health to exhibit their products and services to biohacking enthusiasts. Polar, an industry leader in heart rate sensors, activity trackers and wearable sports technology, has decades of experience in a category that has seen rapid growth over the past few years. From physical performance to daily activity and health monitoring, wearables integrate technology seamlessly into our everyday lives and drive a new wave of biohacking as it becomes better known to the general public. “As wearable technology itself has taken leaps forward, people have become aware of the harmful effects of inactivity and more readily adopt new technologies that help them take care of their health,” said Katja Malkki, Marketing Manager of Polar, about the factors behind the wearables boom. “Smart phones have further speeded up the process as people are able to browse and analyze data on the go.“ V1bes, a sensor kit and app that measures several bio-signals from brain waves to heart rate, sees biohacking as a key factor influencing the future of healthcare. “Biohacking is all about self-diagnostics,” Gustaf Kranck, founder of V1bes, said. “People will increasingly measure, …

Jaakko Halmetoja is a well-known nutritionist in the Finnish health food scene in addition to lecturing in the Baltic Countries. In 2011 he gave almost 150 lectures and more than 100 interviews to newspapers, radio channels and television. At the moment he is advising various health food companies, writing books and studying to extend his knowledge. He is also an advisor to LUONTOlife and a writer of recently published book about Chaga-mushroom; Pakurikääpä. He is the co-author of Biohakkerin käsikirja with technology specialist Teemu Arina and medical doctor Olli Sovijärvi. Jaakko has always been interested in health and nutrition, not least because both of his parents are P.E. teachers. He used to be one of the top submission wrestlers in Finland and his daily routines included two training sessions during his teenage years. Biohacker Summit: What does a health expert eat on the morning when an important day is to begin? Jaakko Halmetoja: Basically I do a big elixir that is kind of an updated version of a smoothie that I can drink during the day. The base of an elixir is tea with medicinal mushrooms or other local herbs. Especially during the winter time I also add around 1 dl …

Mikko Ikola is an entrepreneur and co-founder at Ambronite and V-assistentti.fi. He is an enthusiast in exploring novel ways in lifestyle design. Ikola delivers thought-provoking keynotes about how Virtual Assistants (VAs) shape the world we live in today and how we can make use of their skills to lead a more productive and balanced lifestyle. “VAs are today’s knowledge work samurais. They allow a new person to grow within you. They enable you to navigate through your day without wasting time on repetitive and manual tasks. You can focus on your strengths and outsource your weaknesses. Ultimately, virtual assistants make you productive, not busy”, says Ikola. Mikko Ikola changed his life by tapping in to the world of Virtual Assistants. Ikola uses several VAs every day, has multiplied his productivity and has obtained balance in his personal and work life.  A virtual assistant (typically abbreviated to VA) provides professional administrative, technical, or creative assistance to clients remotely from a home office. The communication between the virtual assistant and client happens over email. Biohacker Summit: How have you benefited using Virtual Assistants? Mikko Ikola: I have been using international virtual assistants for years. Virtual assistants have upgraded my productivity and brought …

Olli Sovijärvi is one of the pioneers in holistic medicine in Finland and the only medical doctor with a psychologic-philosophical Integral Theory degree from John F. Kennedy University, CA. Sovijärvi graduated 2006 as a licensed physician from University of Helsinki. Numerous appearances in the media, social media articles, as well as Finland’s first health themed podcast have created people the kind of awareness what health really means. He has worked as a private practitioner in the past five years and currently focuses on practicing his profession in a clinic, which operates in Functional Medicine. He is accompanied by other physicians, nurses, and a unique trace element laboratory. Sovijärvi gives regularly lectures and trainings in different areas of health and is particularly focused on the natural nutrition, optimizing performance and integration of mind and body. Sovijärvi has also consulted many natural health brands and organizations. He is also one of the authors of the upcoming Biohacker’s Handbook. “I have previously been a workaholic and suffered from enormous stress state. Six years ago, woken up to this constant achieving and overdoing I began finally treating also myself. In practice, all things changed in my life on a physical, mental and psychological level, …

Olli Sovijärvi is one of the pioneers in holistic medicine in Finland and the only medical doctor with a psychologic-philosophical Integral Theory degree from John F. Kennedy University, CA. Sovijärvi graduated 2006 as a licensed physician from University of Helsinki. Numerous appearances in the media, social media articles, as well as Finland’s first health themed podcast have created people the kind of awareness what health really means. He has worked as a private practitioner in the past five years and currently focuses on practicing his profession in a clinic, which operates in Functional Medicine. He is accompanied by other physicians, nurses, and a unique trace element laboratory. Sovijärvi gives regularly lectures and trainings in different areas of health and is particularly focused on the natural nutrition, optimizing performance and integration of mind and body. Sovijärvi has also consulted many natural health brands and organizations. He is also one of the authors of the upcoming Biohacker’s Handbook. “I have previously been a workaholic and suffered from enormous stress state. Six years ago, woken up to this constant achieving and overdoing I began finally treating also myself. In practice, all things changed in my life on a physical, mental and psychological level, …

Katri Saarikivi is a researcher at the Cognitive Brain Research Unit of University of Helsinki with years of experience in work and organisational psychology. In her research Katri explores brain processes related to learning and how they can be shaped through interaction. She also works with organizations on subjects like the future of work, digital work, connectivity, creativity, and other human-centered aspects of work. She hopes to bring relevant neuroscientific knowledge to organizations to help in understanding how supporting human interaction and learning can lead to value creation and wellbeing. Here is Katri’s presentation from Biohacker Summit 2014 – What Neuroscience Tells Us About Upgrading Work & Cognition: Interview with Katri Saarikivi follows: Biohacker Summit: Katri Saarikivi, you are Cognitive Neuroscientist, could you describe your profession to someone who does not know well these special fields or terms? Katri Saarikivi: Cognitive neuroscience refers to the study of the neural processes underlying cognition. This means that we are interested in how thought processes, for instance perception, learning, emotion, or decision-making, are linked to neural processes. Biohacker Summit: What kind of work are you practically doing & for whom? Katri Saarikivi: I’m working on my PhD at the Cognitive Brain Research Unit …