MEET OUR SPEAKERS

Luke Savage is an Education Advisor for Epic Games, working with universities and industry partners around the world to build the next generation of talent.  He previously ran the PlayStation First developer program at Sony Interactive Entertainment, helping students develop and publish games on PlayStation.  You can also ask Luke anything about Sega consoles from the 90s and he'll be very happy.

Jouni Smed holds a PhD in Computer Science and serves as a University Lecturer and Adjunct Professor at the University of Turku, Finland. He has organized and taught game development on diverse topics, spanning from game algorithms and networking in multiplayer games to game software construction, game design, and interactive storytelling. 

Hey. I am Ivan, visual developer with 10+ years of experience (mostly Rovio). Founder of Theme Park Finland. Science lover, late middle ages aesthetics junkie.

Adam Al-Sawad is a CFO, composer and audio engineer, hailing from Kuopio’s own Kalla Gameworks. With a decade of working experience in the game industry, as well as working in theater, dance, film and ads too, Adam has become a grizzled veteran, always pushing to help the Finnish game industry grow and diversify.

My name is Viljami Heikkilä, I'm a CEO of a VR-learning environment startup Anvil Synthetics Oy and current chair of the board at Turku Game Hub. I like to pass my free time in the nature camping and hiking, reading books, watching movies and overall nerd around.

Eetu Äikäs is a Freelance QA Tester and an active in IGDA Turku. He is the creator of the TurkuGameLab-SummerTraining (TGL-ST in short) program, currently in its second run. Eetu is passionate about fostering the local game dev ecosystem and is dedicated to building and supporting Turku’s indie community for the decade ahead.

Wilma Ramona Ikäheimonen is the COB of Game Makers of Finland, a Finnish game industry trade union, as well as an art producer and visual development artist in Magonia Entertainment. Apart from the games industry, they have experience within the film industry as an art director and a costume designer. They also partake in academic research, with the current focus being on digital historical costuming and characters.

Susanna is a Senior Software Developer and Team Lead at Futurice, and the founder of solo game studio Isse Rüü. With a background in both software and game development, she brings hands-on experience from indie production to commercial software & game projects. Her recent game Glowpop, developed by Punnu Games, launched on Nintendo Switch in early 2025.

Teija Raninen is a Film Commissioner at West Finland Film Commission within Business Turku. She has played a key role in developing the film, audiovisual and creative industries in the Turku region, working at the intersection of storytelling, technology, financing and business development.

Christopher Hamilton is a video game industry professional specializing in production, developer and publisher relations, and business development. He has worked at companies like Rovio, Genvid Technologies, GameHouse, and Nevosoft, contributing to projects across PC, mobile, web, and emerging interactive platforms.

Oskari is the COO and 3D Specialist at MiTale, an indie game development company based in Turku. In addition to managing operations and driving business development, he actively supports the game development community as Co-Lead of the IGDA Turku Hub and Co-Founder of the W Love Games association.