Association to represent Finnish Game Developer Companies

NEOGAMES ANNOUNCES: It´s time to establish Association to represent Finnish Game Developer Companies. Meeting in RTI auditorium in Pasila Radiokatu 5 D monday 5.2 at 15.00.

Idea about association representing Finnish Game Developer Companies has been discussed several years. Because of the recent years economical growth of Finnish Game Industry and the rise of creative industries generally it seems that now is an appropriate time to actually do something to this matter. Join us in founding meeting of Finnish Game Developers Association (working title). The founding meeting is held 5.2 .at 15.00 in Pasila Radiokatu 5D.

More information on the spot. and also from Neogames website: http://www.neogames.fi/tiedotteet.htm (in Finnish) Meeting is hosted by Neogames

Look Back at 2006 - A Record-Setting Year

2006 was a Record-Setting Year for Finnish Game Industry. What a year it was!

Countless awards, great reviews for many Finnish developed games and the developers themselves. When was the last time you remember a Finnish game receiving 10/10 in any major review source? When was the last time Finnish developers & their games were nominated 17 times on IGN's Best of Year awards?

And IGDA Finland has done great as well. We have managed to grow in every area - memberships, size of invitation mailing list, maturity & size of volunteer organization and most importantly in our attendance.

In my earlier post, I was just looking at Fall 2006 numbers, due to the fact that we organize our IGDA activities based on seasons which run from August to July. So we usually track our activities in three periods: Fall, Spring and the full Season.

But if we take the numbers for the whole year, from January 2006 to December 2006, they are nearly as impressive:

- 11 organized events - total of 1301 attendees - Average attendance of 118.27 - Minimum attendance 53 - Maximum attendance 210 - Memberships grew from 87 to 180 (106.9% yearly growth) - Invitation list grew from 480 to 587 (22.29% yearly growth)

These growth numbers would not have been possible had we not developed our organization further during the year as well. Here's a list of the major changes in our organization:

- 6 person Advisory Board formed - 2 new people added to the Advisory Board - 2 Student Volunteers stepped up to become Chapter Coordinators - 4 new Student Volunteers joined - Total number of volunteers rose from 21 to 25 (includes Advisory Board, Chapter Coordinators & Student Volunteers)

A big thanks to all people who are involved and volunteer their free time with such dedication - You are the force that keeps IGDA Finland going! With a historically successful year like 2006 behind us, I look forward to the challenge of matching, maybe even exceeding, that success in 2007. Above all else, I hope you all keep coming to the IGDA Gatherings!

- Jyri Ranki, Lead Coordinator

Nour Khrais' lecture in G&S on Tue 16.1 at 17:15

Nour Khrais' lecture in Games and Storytelling on Tue 16 Jan at 17:15 "Mobile game "glocalization"" on the basis of the experiences of Nour Khrais' game company experiences on the Middle East and European market:

http://www.gamesandstorytelling.net/Khrais-lecture-2007.html

Venue: University of Art and Design Helsinki, Media Centre Lume, Sampo auditorium. Videoconference venue in Tampere: University of Tampere, lecture hall 1096, PinniB, Kanslerinrinne 1.

Nour Khrais is founder and general manager of Maysalward R&D (MRD) Mr Khrais has over 6 years of experience in Mobile Value Added Services in International business environment both from the VAS platform infrastructures and Service provider Side. Prior to forming Maysalward R&D and in early 1999 Mr Khrais Joined ACOTEL/Info2cell Content Business Development Team where shortly he was nominated to be head of the Team operating between Dubai and Jordan offices covering the Middle East and North Africa Market and focusing in developing value added services for the operators in the region. In 2001 Khrais decided to explore a new experience and Joined SWAPCOM France a leader in Mobile Infrastructure VAS platforms where KHRAIS was responsible for the Middle East Market launching successfully for Al JAZEERA TV NETWORK their Mobile Platform AL JAZEERA MOBILE. Nov 2003 a dream comes true and Maysalward R&D was founded under the vision of Mr Khairs who decided to launch a Mobile Content Hub to the first Mobile Game Developer in the Middle East Region offering unique and localized content targeting the Middle East Europe and Latin American Markets. Nour Khairs is based between operational offices in Strasbourg, Dubai and Jordan and he holds a Master of Business Administration and Bsc of Agriculture Engineering. His passion for Games and entertainment enforced with strong business vision and management in mobile value added services guarantee the success and uniqueness of product and services production.

Free admittance.

Welcome!

The lecture is in English. Further information: Juhani Tenhunen juhani.tenhunen at lume.fi

http://www.gamesandstorytelling.net

December gathering appears in nintendo.fi

One of our December sponsors Amo Oy (Nintendo) decided to put IGDA Finland gathering in the news of nintendo.fi site. Last time we were mentioned in nintendo.fi was when we showed off some DS Lite action in our gathering.This time it was the Wii that broke the news barrier. We also broke the news barrier with December gathering in igda.org frontpage!

nintendo.fi article: http://www.nintendo.fi/?file=424

January Gathering - 23rd January 2007

Finnish Game Developers! Holidays are over and Finnish winter has been exceptionally depressing this year - unless one likes rain that is. But first IGDA Gathering of the year is here to bring you some joy. After an exceptional fall term, it is time to start the Spring half of our 2006-2007 season. No big programming this month, just good company, good conversations and cool beer.

IGDA FINLAND JANUARY GATHERING Place: System Rock, Keskuskatu 4, 00100 Helsinki (map) Time: Tuesday 23rd January, doors open at 19.00

Don't forget to bring your handheld consoles!

Come one, come all! Jyri - IGDA Finland Chapter Coordinator