Southern city gears up for 10th edition of Teknofest

ADANA

The preparations are underway for the 10th edition of Teknofest, the world's largest space, aviation and technology festival, to be held in the southern province of Adana this year.

"Don't look far. Teknofest 2024 is in Adana," Selçuk Bayraktar, chairman of the Teknofest Board of Directors and the Turkish Technology Team (T3) Foundation, announced.

Hosting millions of visitors every year, the festival aspires to cultivate a heightened societal interest with technology through various activities such as technology competitions, air shows, concerts, interviews and events spanning diverse topics. In doing so, Teknofest aims to instill awareness regarding Türkiye’s transformative journey towards becoming a society that pioneers and advances technology.

With the collaboration of the Industry and Technology Ministry and the T3 Foundation, Teknofest held in Istanbul, Ankara and İzmir last year saw a total attendance of 4.6 million participants.

Yücel Bayram, chairman of the Board of Directors of Adana Chamber of Commerce (ATO), reported that applications for Teknofest's 2024 technology competitions have started.

Bayram, who called on the youth to participate, said, "The competitions to be organized in 46 main categories and 117 sub-categories including rocket, model satellite, artificial intelligence in health, biotechnology innovation, digital technologies to be organized in Teknofest 2024 offer the opportunity for our young people to turn their dreams into reality."

Furthermore, competitions will also be held in areas such as wireless communication, blockchain, air defense systems, financial Technologies.

Financial support worth 55 million Turkish Liras will be given to the teams that pass the pre-elimination stage and 30 million liras will be awarded to the winning teams.

The deadline to apply for competitions was announced as Feb. 20, 2024, while the date of the festival will be revealed in the coming days.

Türkiye’s first astronaut Alper Gezeravcı also shared his support for the festival from space with a photo of himself doing the "Teknofest pose" in front of the Turkish flag.

"As Türkiye's first astronaut, it is a great source of pride and honor for me to be a part of this exciting journey that starts from a village in Mersin Silifke and extends to the sky. As I proudly move forward to make my country an internationally respected science and technology power, the Teknofest pose, which has become a classic, accompanies me with our flag with the moon and stars. I hope that every child of this country will be inspired by this story for the future," Gezeravcı stated.