Mobile Dev Camp Coming To Helsinki
Mobile Dev Camp (MDC), an informal gathering mainly for mobile developers that started after the iPhone came about, will be organized in Helsinki on 21st February, 2009.
Apple's iPhone (and Android right after it) brought a lot of new people to the mobile development world. The people are entereing the mobile remit en mass at the same pace as iPhone is conquering market share. Along with the sexiness of the new apps developed for iPhone and Android platforms, the new platforms are also a easier to develop for compared to say Symbian, which is Nokia's preferred platform.
These new people are entering the mobile world mainly from the sexy web 2.0 world bringing concepts such as BarCamps and Unconferences with them. This is also clearly seen in the one organized in Helsinki.
One of the people behind the MDC Helsinki, Peter Robinett who was also speaking at our ArcticEvening a while ago, has already orgazanized three other mobile development camps in Amsterdam: One for Android, one for iphone and one for a variety of mobile topics.
At the Finnish end, organizers include Andreas Karlsson and Mikko Hämälainen of Grey Area Labs, Kai Lemmetty of Floobs and Mike Bradshaw.
The attendance is free of charge and only thing you have to bring with you is your laptop and and open mind. And if you're not a developer? Don't worry! You can still attend as long as you can contribute. You can sign up here.
An Outsider's Take On Finnish Startups
We invited Peter Robinett of Bubble Foundry to come and attend Slush on behalf of TheNextWeb blog, an Amsterdam based weblog that reports on everything that influences the future of the Web, in any way. Peter himself is a developer now living in Amsterdam and very active in the local startup scene. Peter for example organizes Lunch 2.0 and Mobile Dev Camp in Amsterdam. Here's Peter's take on the Finnish startup scene.
I had a great time attending Slush on Monday and Ville asked me to share my thoughts of the Helsinki startup scene. While more directed at ArcticStartup's Finnish readers, I hope these comments proven interesting to all ArcticStartup readers. My experience with startups is mainly through working with Dutch ones and organizing various events in the Netherlands, though having grown up in Silicon Valley I hope I have a somewhat accurate sense of how things work there too.
Successful And Buzzing ArcticEvening
We had a fantastic ArcticEvening last night at Dubrovnik in Helsinki and I want to thank everybody who were able to arrive and enjoy the evening with us. Special thanks to Peter Robinett who came all the way from Amsterdam to share his insights on the local startup scene in Amsterdam and in Silicon Valley. Also thanks for our sponsor Technopolis Ventures who made the evening possible.
Based on what I saw last night in Helsinki and heard about the other corners of Nordic and Baltic countries the Arctic scene is very much happening. It is great to see that regardless of the tougher times for the global economy and Jason Calacanis' darker prediction on things to come, the enthusiasm and spirit is high in the Arctic latitudes.
As Jason says, "Great entrepreneurs build value and market-share in down markets. They go to work seven days a week and breakout when other folks check out." Last night showed that this is certainly the case in Helsinki. We are very proud of the entrepreneurs, startups and all the high spirited people in Finland -You made our night. Thank you!
Photo by Teppo Kotirinta
Arctic Evening on the 2nd October
We're back with events and would like to invite all of our readers to enjoy a laid back evening at Dubrovnik atmosphere with some drinks, networking and discussion on our very own startup scene on the 2nd October, 2008.
Wisened up from the feedback from you guys, we aim to keep the program brief and to the point, but still interesting. We will have Peter Robinett flying over from Amsterdam to come and chat with me about the lastest developements in the Amsterdam startup scene, the hottest Dutch startups, and even the Silicon Valley scene in general and what we could learn from the two to make the Finnish startup ecosystem more dynamic for all of us.
Peter is an accomplished coder and a web designer. He's originally from Palo Alto, California which is undisputedly the most dynamic start-up ecosystem in the world. After moving to Europe he quickly settled in Amsterdam, Netherland and have been active impacting the local start-up scene by organizing Luch 2.0, Barcamps and most recently the iPhone Dev Camp.
In addition to the discussion with Peter, we will have an open mic for any start-up, entrepreneur or other like minded persona to talk about their project, product launch, open source project and what not. Addition to this we attempt to bring in one interesting speaker that will be revealed at the beginning of the evening itself.
The venue will be the tried and tested Dubrovnik Lounge & Lobby in Helsinki, Finland. We will start at 6pm and wind down the official program around 9pm. Naturally those willing are welcomed to go until the wee hours.
To pay the bills we are looking sponsors for the event. If your company is interested email Miikka your contact details at miikka [at] arcticstartup [dot] com and he will contact you. We'll give you proper visibility and you can say a few words about your company at the beginning of the evening.
We're are also celebrating our one-year birthday, so leave the NDAs at home and come along to toast with us to the buzzing local startup scene and to the entrepreneurs we have here.
Edit 14/09/2008: Please register here if you have a Facebook account and you're planning on attending, so that we'll have an idea of how many will attend and can prepare for it. If you don't have a Facebook account feel free to write me or tell us you're coming at the comments. Thanks guys!
