2020 has been tough. It started pretty good, then we all know what happened. So for this year's big event we thought it may be a good idea to not only see the light at the end of the tunnel, but to light the entire tunnel up!
Naturally, we had to have a movie. We had one last year, and this year is no different. Otto Nyholm is the director, cameraman and editor of this one, which means the result is as amazing as ever. It stars board member Frank as the main character and the rest of the board as supporting actors as well as local talents from Nykarleby.
Two people that power Nykarleby enter the stage to kick off the evening's discussions: Mats Brandt, mayor - and Bengt Jansson, chairman of Nykarleby Kraftverk. A few words were exchanged regarding Nykarleby - and how Ostrobothnians are slightly crazy. They "do".
"Hello Silicon Valley! Do you hear me, Mårten Mickos?" says Kaj when Mårten Mickos of HackerOne and MySQL fame enters the stage virtually from San Fransisco. The discussion delves into many subjects. Everything from how he got the title "Man Behind The Pillar", to how Silicon Valley compares to the Nordics in terms of equality and the way of thinking, and how "Management by perkele" may not be the best way to lead a company.
Says Kaj - and Mårten agrees. Enter Lucas Käldström of Luxus Labs. He is one of the 20 most active contributors to the server technology Kubernetes, and got his first professional coding gig at 14! Mårten and Lucas delves into a discussion about the benefits of open source code. Open source allowed Lucas, at the age of 15, to start improving the code that's running on thousands and thousands of Google's servers.
Our favourite globalist - Peter Vesterbacka was next. After a Chinese greeting to Nykarleby - Peter starts dismantling prejudices against China and Russia with the argument that there are good people all over the world. Mårten recognized this from the current place he calls home, San Fransisco. "It's a very accepting place of people of different creeds and origins."
Peter builds a tunnel to Estonia, and the next guest wants to build a bridge to Sweden. Joakim Strand walks up on stage. After a quick rant about the latest VPS football match - he goes on to explain how important it is to bring countries together and how through big companies such as Wärtsilä, Ostrobothnia has its spot on the world stage. Mårten agrees, and says he likes the confidence.
"Mårten, how many followers do you have on TikTok?", Kaj asks. "Maybe -1.", Mårten responds. This is certainly not the case with the next guest, Jennifer Käld, who has 4.6 million followers on TikTok. Jennifer Käld reflects on her journey to such a massive fanbase, saying it's all happened so fast. Jennifer explains how Social media actually boosts her self-confidence, rather than the common saying that it does the opposite. Peter promptly takes a picture for this Twitter account. A discussion ensues about Trump's threat of banning TikTok in the United States. "The storm cannot be stopped", Mårten says.
Annika Rak, CEO of Cambridge joins the cohort. Annika says that she is likely the most proud of all the guests, as she's born in Nykarleby and lived most of her life here. She likes to call herself "Michelangela". While Michelangelo carved David from marble, she likes to shape people's bodies into the best shape they can be. Annika says "It's a great confidence booster" and "it's important that people can feel that they are good".
Aviv-Ben Yehuda of Big Ear Games is the last, but certainly not the least, guest up on stage. Aviv goes on to explain his diverse academic background in medicine and music. His company Big Ear Games brings music to everyone through technology.
The show wrapped up with a deep discussion about trust, and the importance having goals in life. The goals varied from changing the world (Peter), to fighting climate change, to creating a TikTok account.
Photos by Walberg Media.
Nygårdsvägen 8
66900 Nykarleby
FINLAND
Y-Tunnus: 3012198-9
info@nykarlebyinnovationcenter.fi
