Türkiye’s massive tech event Teknofest draws 900,000 visitors

The fifth edition of Türkiye's largest technology and aviation event Teknofest, in the Black Sea city of Samsun, has attracted 900,000 visitors. According to information from Zülkif Dağlı, the governor of the Samsun province, the six-day event, starting last Tuesday, attracted visitors from all around the country as well as Europe and many friendly countries. Organized at the Samsun Çarşamba Airport by the Turkish Technology Team Foundation (T3 Foundation) and Türkiye's Industry and Technology Ministry, the six-day event showcased activities such as air shows with warplanes, drones, and helicopters, as well as seminars, summits, and competitions. The 2022 festival featured technology competitions in more than 40 different categories including semiconductors, UAVs, satellites, rockets, robotics, and artificial intelligence. This year, 600,000 people applied for the event's competitions. The event provided equipment worth millions of Turkish liras for competitors and granted more than 7 million Turkish liras ($384,085) to winners. Meanwhile, Teknofest, in its all activities in various cities such as drone and rocket competitions, hosted 1.25 million visitors. MinChan Kim from South Korea won the World Drone Cup-2022 competition, while Changhyeon Kang from South Korea got second place and Killian Rousseau from France was third. Selçuk Bayraktar, the chairman of the T3 Foundation, said at the event: 'With hundreds of thousands of competitors, hundreds of stakeholders, and volunteers, we had the rightful pride of organizing the world's largest technology festival.' At the event, there were 101 shareholders and 130 companies in attendance. As part of aircraft/transport exhibits, visitors were treated to a look at unmanned aerial vehicles Bayraktar TB-2, Kızıl Elma and Aksungur, F-16 and F-4 Phantom fighter jets, helicopters Gökbey and Bell 429, ongoing national warcraft projects MMU and Hürjet, indigenous trainer plane Hürkuş, transport aircraft CASA CN-235, maritime patrol aircraft P-72, and the first indigenous flying car Cezeri. Last year, the event was held at Istanbul's Atatürk Airport, while its first international version was held in Baku, Azerbaijan this May. Officials are in dialogue with Pakistan, Indonesia, and Uzbekistan for other international versions of the event in the years to come.