GET TO KNOW OUR SPEAKERS

Presentations by innovative Finnish XR companies, artists and scientists –
hear what they have created and chat with them face-to-face after presentations at AltspaceVR,
or observe the show through our Youtube stream. 

Check out our speakers below and also see the stage program schedule so you don’t miss your favorite topic of the Match XR day!

Christina Forsgård

Founder

Netprofile

Christina Forsgård is an Angel Investor, Mother of Santa, Godmother of Slush, Cyber and Space Nerd by heart and a geeky marketing and communications humanist influencer and entrepreneur by profession. She is the founder of marketing communications consultancy Netprofile.

She has been coaching tech startups at Aalto University Startup Sauna, Vertical and xEdu and is currently Member of the Board of Psyon Games. She has published a business book on social media in Finland and is a regular speaker and a coach in business and PR seminars in Finland and abroad. 

Christina was nominated TOP100 ICT influencer and visionary in Finland in 2009. Christina served five years (2009-2014) as the Chairman of MTL Communications Consultancies in Finland and acted as the Finnish representative at the ICCO Board. She was elected as the first ICCO Global Ethics Chair in 2019.

09:15 – Good Morning From Helsinki: Panel Discussion, facilitator

Annastina Haapasaari

Project Manager, Opera Beyond

Finnish National Opera and Ballet

Annastina Haapasaari is a specialist working at the crossroads of arts and technology. Currently, she is leading the Finnish National Opera and Ballet’s Opera Beyond project that explores the possibilities of new technology for performing arts and develops the digital strategy of the organization.

Having a background in cinema and in communications, Annastina has worked with the new, immersive mediums for several years and holds a major interest also in the larger societal impact of technology and digitalization. 

TBA – Presentation: “Opera Beyond – Immersive Technology in Performing Arts”

Jussi Havu

CEO

Glue Collaboration

Jussi Havu is CEO of Glue Collaboration (Helsinki, Finland), a company helping teams around the world to collaborate remotely in more productive and sustainable ways using a cloud-based virtual collaboration platform.

Jussi is a business executive with more than a decade of experience in working for large corporations and start ups around the world in dispersed and high performing teams and now he channels his first-hand experience and understanding of the end user requirements and challenges into the development of Glue.

Prior to Glue, Jussi has been working in various strategy, sales, business development and finance roles both at large corporations like Nokia and Microsoft as well as most recently at automated driving startup Aimotive as their Chief Commercial Officer. Jussi holds a master’s degree in finance from the Aalto University School of Business.

09:15 – Good Morning From Helsinki: Panel Discussion, participant

Jukka Häkkinen

Research Scientist

University of Helsinki

Jukka Häkkinen received PhD in experimental psychology at the Institute of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland. Currently he is Principal Investigator at the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, where he leads Visual Cognition Research Group. He is also Docent at Department of Computer Science, Aalto University.

His interests include visual cognition related to stereoscopic and 360-degree videos, visual attention, eye movements, foveation, and user experience and ergonomics of stereoscopic, head-mounted and flexible displays.

TBA – Presentation: “XR Conceptual Research”

Sami Janhukainen

Head of Content

Lyfta Oy

For over 15 years Sami has explored the art of communication through creating, crafting and curating documentary stories in audiovisual media.

TBA – Presentation: “Lyfta: Impactful Immersive Storytelling in Education”

Emmi Jouslehto

CEO & Co-founder

Arilyn

Emmi has been living and loving XR since 2013 when Arilyn was founded.

She also has a soft spot for sci-fi and dogs (which are not that far from each other).

TBA – Presentation: “Entering the Holodeck”

Aleksis Karme

CSO, Co-Founder

Teatime Research Ltd.

Chief Science Officer in Teatime Research, Researcher in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Helsinki, Board member in Finnish Virtual Reality Association FIVR, XR Advisor in HXRC.

Paleontologist. Featured in Nature careers. Builds chewing robots with real teeth. 3D modelling, scanning, analysis, photogrammetry, printing, VR/AR – additively for over 70 years.

TBA – Presentation: “Vrifier Co-created”

Urho Konttori

Founder & Chief Product Officer 

Varjo

Urho Konttori is founder and chief product officer at Varjo. He was the CEO for the first two years in the company. He is a product innovator and manager who has 15 years of experience in designing, engineering and managing large-scale hardware and software projects at Microsoft and Nokia.

Varjo is forerunner in the VR and XR space, the first company having built fully immersive human eye resolution XR technology, focused purely for the professional market.

09:15 – Good Morning From Helsinki: Panel Discussion, participant

TBA – Presentation: “Photorealistic Mixed Reality”

Hannu Lesonen

CEO, Founder

Anarky Labs

Industrial designer, UX specialist and a VR/AR/game enthusiast and creator/maker since the last millenium.

TBA – Presentation: “MR as a disruptor in drones industry”

Mika Luimula

Research Group Leader, Ph.D.

Turku University of Applied Sciences

Dr. Mika Luimula works as a Research Group Leader of Futuristic Interactive Technologies and as a Principal Lecturer of Game and Interactive Technologies for Turku University of Applied Sciences. He holds a PhD in Information Processing Sciences and an MSc in Mathematics. He also holds an Adjunct Professorship at the University of Turku. He is coordinating e.g. Virtual Learning Cluster Finland. In addition, he is a senior advisor to the board of Ade Ltd.

His research interests include gamification, serious games, virtual reality, augmented reality, health informatics and location-aware systems.

He has published around 130 scientific papers and his research group has won various awards in the above mentioned research areas.

TBA – Presentation: “Next generation learning – Utilizing interactive technologies to tackle COVID-19”

Jaakko Mattila

Marketing Manager

Stereoscape

Digital business development expert specialized in VR communication. Passionate to make the potential of new technologies a reality.

TBA – Presentation: “How to utilize XR in communication situations”

Meri Miettinen

Creative Designer

Lyfta Oy

Designer and researcher of Lyfta Oy and Aalto University.

TBA – Presentation: “Lyfta: Impactful Immersive Storytelling in Education”

Oleg Nikolaenko

Creative Director

AXiiO VR Studio

Oleg Nikolaenko is a theater and multimedia director and producer.
Graduated State Theater Academy, St.Petersburg, Russia. Oleg is the creator of a wide range of projects – from stage performances and multimedia, to TV advertisement and virtual reality projects. With over twenty years of experience directing theatre and shows in France, Greece, Germany, Switzerland, Russia and Finland.

TBA – Presentation: “Narrative and storytelling – VR content with live actors”

Laura Olin

COO & Partner

ZOAN

Laura Olin is partner and Chief Operating Officer of Zoan where she has worked since 2016. Her background is in b2b marketing & business development and journalism.

Zoan is an award-winning XR studio based in Helsinki. The global team of professionals creates real-time 3D to help companies improve their processes.

09:15 –Good Morning From Helsinki: Panel Discussion, participant

Victor Pardinho

CEO

Sense of Space

Victor Pardinho is a media artist, designer and the CEO and co-founder of Sense of Space, a startup working on making volumetric storytelling accessible for digital content creators. His work engages with technology and storytelling, exploring the future of immersive and interactive experiences.

TBA – Presentation: “Sense of Space: Making volumetric holograms accessible for everyone”

Petri Rajahalme

Managing Director

Nordic XR Startups

Petri has been running Nordic XR Startups for the past two years.

NXS is an early stage investment company, investing in early stage XR companies in the Nordics. We currently have a portfolio of 12 companies.

TBA – Presentation: “Why I’m excited about XR”

Sebastian Schlecht

Professor of Practice

Aalto University

Sebastian J. Schlecht is Professor of Practice for Sound in Virtual Reality at the Aalto University, Finland. This position is shared between the Aalto Media Lab and the Aalto Acoustics Lab.

His research interests include spatial audio processing with an emphasis on artificial reverberation, synthesis, reproduction, and 6-degrees-of-freedom virtual and mixed reality applications.

In particular, his research efforts have been directed towards the intersection of mathematical filter design, efficient algorithms, perceptual aspects, and sound design.

TBA – Presentation: “Sound in Virtual Reality”

Olli Sinerma

Senior Advisor

Business Finland

Entertainment Finland lead, government funding advisor for XR and entertainment. Founder and first chairman of FIVR, game developer, producer and comic & cat enthusiast.

09:15 – Good Morning From Helsinki: Panel Discussion, participant

Tuukka Takala

JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow

Waseda University

Dr. Tuukka Takala is a VR researcher and developer who has worked full-time with VR since 2007. His research focus is in full body avatars, about which he has created multiple novel prototypes. Tuukka has authored 16 peer-reviewed publications on VR, and taught a VR project course for 5 years in Aalto University.

He is currently conducting research at Waseda University in Tokyo, the capital of Virtual YouTubers.

Tuukka is also a co-founder of FIVR and an advisor at Osgenic.

TBA – Presentation: “Avatar Embodiment & Full Body Tracking”

Jan Vapaavuori

Mayor 

City of Helsinki

Jan Vapaavuori is the Mayor of Helsinki. He was born in 1965 in the capital. He graduated with a Law degree from Helsinki University in 1989. He continued his education in Helsinki, Upsla, and The Hague. He worked as a law assistant at Helsinki University between 1991 and 1992. His political career began as a secretary in the Parliamentary Group of the National Coalition. He was also the assistant of three ministers in three governments. From 1997 to 2000 he worked at the City Council as chairman of the sports committee.

In 2017 he became mayor of Helsinki. His city development program focuses on healthcare, transport and infrastructure, education, culture and housing, as well as the development of the business environment.

09:00 – Good Morning From Helsinki: Opening Words