The northernmost IGDA hub in the world has now officially been opened at Rovaniemi, on 26th of September, in the arctic where it’s so cold that computers keep constantly freezing! Not really, just kidding..

The formal part of this event took place at the main campus of Rovaniemi University of Applied Sciences. There we had two guests who talked about IGDA Finland, about the support it has to offer for students and starting game developers, and about their personal experiences on taking up a career in gaming industry. Total number of people listening and asking lots of good questions was 19, so one might say that we had a fairly good start considering the size of the audience.

First speaker was Tatu Laine, Creative Director from NordicEdu. He talked about IGDA, what it actually is and why we should know it, and also about educational games that his company’s focuses on.

Second speaker was Jukka Laakso, CEO from Rival Games. Among other things related to working in a game startup, he introduced us to IGDA Scholarship. It is really something you should check out if you’re planning to have a career in the business.

After the formal part we moved to have some drinks and of course talk some more. We also had totally new participants who were then introduced to the Pelilabra room at Valtakatu 19.

All in all, it was very encouraging and motivating to hear the guys’ startup stories and the things they had learned along the way. The stuff I personally learned from this event actually could have their own post some time later. Informative and fun indeed, more of this, please! Here are some photos from the gathering: