August Gathering - After Action Report

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The August Gathering was a nice and mellow 'welcome back' from summer vacation. The evening started slow but later turned into a full house with the party continuing until well after midnight. In the end, there were a total of 105 attendees with 25 new comers and 7 guests. Among the attendees was a good sized group from Nokia and a new volunteer.

For photos CLICK HERE

Most of the evening was spent swapping stories about summer vacations, boggling over the unusual amounts of sunshine and playing DS lite. The games of choice were Mario Kart DS and Tetris DS. A few people took some time away from the chatting to try out their luck at the poker table.

The volunteers at the door had a fun night catching up, welcoming familiar faces and playing Munchkin. We also had the pleasure of greeting quite a few foreign visitors including a native of Japan and a few guests of Remedy from Microsoft Game Studios.

All in all, it was a great night for chatting, gaming and socializing! Thank you all for coming.

-Liz

IGDA Finland Organizational Changes

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Those of you with the keenest eye for detail might have noticed a change in some signatures on this forum, namely those of IGDA Finland actives like myself. The reason for this is that at our end of season meeting this summer, we decided to change the way we have organized the growing number of people who volunteer their precious time into making IGDA Finland possible. Those of you who have recently joined might not be able to put the changes that have happened in a fairly short time period into perspective. From a group of 4 industry veterans running IGDA Finland at the start of 2005, we had grown the size of the group to 7 in an effort to get more things accomplished by the start of 2005-2006 season.

This group was further grown by recruiting all of the great people in our volunteers group. Most of the volunteers are still students or looking for their first break to the industry. Some have secured their first industry positions, either before or during their volunteer efforts. So at the end of the season IGDA Finland actives consisted of two groups: Chapter Team of 7 industry representatives and Volunteer group consisting of 15 people.

This has grown the direct communications links for the main chapter coordinator (me) and prevented effective coordination enough to stall most projects we are undertaking. Therefore the group known in the past as IGDA Finland Chapter Team decided in their end of season meeting in June to re-organize the chapter organization.

In the future, we will break this into three groups: Advisory Board, Chapter Coordinators & Volunteers. This new structure is based on a structure used by many IGDA chapters around the world. This split to advisory board & chapter coordinators does not represent a major change, but more it's about clarifying how we are already working in practice.

* ADVISORY BOARD *

Most of current Chapter Team members will be moving to the Advisory Board. This better reflect the hands-off, advisory role that most of them fill already. One of the founders of IGDA Finland and the previous chapter coordinator Lasse Seppänen will be coordinating the Advisory Board.

* CHAPTER COORDINATORS *

I will remain as the main chapter coordinator, running the every day activities. I will answer to the advisory board and call on their combined experience to help guide IGDA Finland in the future. Two of the most active volunteers have accepted to carry more work and reponsibilities and will become chapter coordinators.

Miikka Luotio will become the new Webmaster. He will be moderating the forums and updating the website. Right now he is in the process of designing our improved website, v3.0, which will be launched later in the fall.

Liz Lehtonen will become Head Volunteer. She has already been responsible for the welcoming staff at events, which is the biggest on-going job for the volunteers. In the future she has the overall responsibility of organizing how the volunteer group works.

My congrats and thanks to Miikka & Liz! Their increased contribution will greatly help develop the chapter further.

* VOLUNTEERS *

The group of volunteers will stay pretty much the same (except for Miikka & Liz who now become chapter coordinators). We are always open for more volunteers, those who are interested should find Liz at the Gatherings.

The exact listing of people in each group will be published when the new website becomes online. But basically, the volunteers stay the same and former Chapter Team Members either become Chapter Coordinators (like myself) or join the Advisory Board (like Lasse). If you're interested hearing more about all of this, you can either post your comments here in this thread or come and talk to me or Lasse at the future Gatherings!

I want to again thank everybody who contributes their time for our cause. Your efforts are very much appreciated!

Cheers, Jay

IGDA Finland Gatherings - Preliminary dates for 2006-2007 Season

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Here are the preliminary dates for the next season, all the way to June 2007. These dates are not final and might still change, but it's our current best thinking - That's why they're called preliminary dates! I will be posting updates to this thread whenever they change... 2006: August 15th September 12th October 24th November 21st December 12th

2007: January 23rd February 20th March 20th April 24th May 29th June 19th

June Gathering - After Action Report

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If I were to describe the IGDA Finland June gathering in as few words as possible, those would have to be "Nintendo DS Lite". Thanks to Oskari Hurme from Amo - Nintendo's Finnish Importer - we had a few DS Lite handheld consoles to play around with. People had plenty wireless multiplaying fun with the DS Lites, using the WiFi connection available in System Club. The demo area was constantly crowded and lines soon started to form. There was a constant multiplayer action going on for hours and everyone had a chance to play. The night was such a success that there might be more cooperation between Amo and IGDA Finland in the future as well. For photos CLICK HERE

People came in pretty early and some seemed to enjoy their stay into the little hours. Subjects of discussions were still heavily fixed on the last E3 and of course DS Lite and Wii consoles. Again there were large groups of people from different game companies present, naturally the major ones and this time also Frozenbyte and Ironstar Helsinki were largely present. From Ironstar Helsinki the whole development team was there, which was probably the related to the fact that Ironstar Helsinki became an IGDA Studio Affiliate recently.

Attendance-wise, it was another successful evening, with total of 96 people showing up.

Thanks for coming everyone and remember to check the photos!