5/2010

Here are some more updates about MindTrek before the summer holidays. Be sure to register and ensure your place at the coolest event of the digital year!

The MindTrek team wishes you a sunny and relaxing summer!

LAURI KIVINEN - NATIONAL BROADCASTER CEO WITH NOKIA BACKGROUND

"Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, and a lucky sixpence in her shoe?" is the title of the keynote speech by Mr Lauri Kivinen, the new CEO of YLE (Finnish Broadcasting Company).

Before moving to Yle Lauri was the Head of Corporate Affairs at Nokia Siemens Networks. He held various senior roles within the Nokia Group, which he joined in 1988.

Lauri was appointed Vice-President of Communications at Nokia Mobile Phones in 1992, before moving to the position of Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications at Nokia Group. His last position at Nokia before joining Nokia Siemens Networks was Head of Nokia’s EU Representative Office based in Brussels.

YLE is a media company engaged in public service television and radio broadcasting. The company´s tasks, operation and financing are defined by law. Yle has four national television channels, six radio channels with 25 regional radio stations as well as a diverse output of internet services.

Check out Lauri at MindTrek if you're interested to hear how a cutting edge ICT business expert sees the role of the national broadcaster in evolving media environment.

ARI JAAKSI, NOKIA'S MOBILE LINUX LEADER

Mr Ari Jaaksi has been involved in the mobile communications industry for more than 15 years and is currently Vice President, MeeGo Devices, for Nokia. In this role, Ari Jaaksi is responsible for the strategy and implementation of Nokia’s mobile Linux and open source based products, and software platforms. He heads the development of Nokia’s Linux-based devices, software and Nokia’s open source developer operations on www.maemo.org.

Ari Jaaksi joined Nokia in 1998 and has held various positions including the head of Nokia’s mobile browser development and the head of Nokia’s software research lab. At Nokia, Ari Jaaksi was instrumental in creating Nokia’s open source software strategy, the Linux-based software platform on Nokia’s mobile browsers and related tools running on all Nokia products.

Ari Jaaksi is an adjunct professor at the Tampere University of Technology. He is a regular speaker at industry conferences, including the Linux World, Open Source in Mobile and Guadec. You can meet Ari Jaaksi at

BRANDON WATSON, MICROSOFT

Brandon Watson is currently responsible for the Developer Experience team for Windows Phone 7. He works on developer marketing, our developer platform products, and have a real focus/passion on new opportunities, specifically around developer enablement and mobile.

Read more from Brandon’s Blog and follow his twitter

MINDTREK PARTNER DAY SESSION: CLOUD COMPUTING

Cloud Computing seems to be the word of the year and the hype around it can't be ignored! Why is this happening and what is behind it? IT goes Cloud even if you want it or not! This MindTrek Partner Session concentrates on the biggest change since the existence of the internet.

In the morning session we will focus on the trends, ecosystems, opportunities and tools of Cloud Computing. There will be an interactive panel discussion from the view of enterprises: Why they have implemented the Cloud and what kind of values and benefits they have obtained. And in the afternoon session we will focus on the services and people; the users of the Cloud services. There will be several professional talks followed by discussions about the topics in front of the infrastructure of the Cloud. The day will climax with the Cloud Cocktails in the Winter garden of Rosendahl. There we will have an opportunity undo the top button of our shirts and relax freely with some cocktails, snacks and new friends in the field of Cloud Computing.

This session is jointly organised by the personnel of FinNode USA, Strategic Research Area directors of Flexible Services program in TIVIT Ltd. and the Tampere Region Centre of Expertise for Ubiquitous Computing (OSKE).

MINDTREK LAUNCHPAD AWARDS BUSINESS POTENTIAL AND INNOVATIVENESS

The MindTrek LaunchPad competition awards innovative new Finnish digital media products or demos – and the people behind it, who have the urge to make it big. The prize sum is 20 000 €. The main jury of industry experts will award the most promising business case (15 000 €), the press jury is going to emphasize the innovativeness of the product (4 000 €), and also the audience will choose its own favorite (1 000 €).

So, if you have a viable business plan, your product is innovative, and your pitch is going to rock the house, you may take it all. But it’s also possible that the prize sum will be divided between two or three competitors. Besides the money, the winners will get business sparring and expert services provided by MindTrek partners.

All the finalists will attend high-level pitch training sessions by Technopolis in September. Six finalists will be selected from the submitted applications to demonstrate in front of the jurors and the conference audience on Thursday, October 7th.

You can register for the MindTrek LaunchPad by filling in an online form by August 22nd, at the latest.

Read more and register

FROM THE MINDTREK SPONSORS: MEET TEAM SIGNBOOK

Team Signbook just won the Imagine Cup 2010 semifinals in Finland and their next competition is Imagine Cup finals in Poland. Signbook application is basically an open bank for sign language terms. The challenge it solves originates from the sign language interpreter students at Diak: they needed an application that eases and boosts the studying of sign language. Read the whole story from here.