Team

Sami Niemelä

Co-chair

Sami has been designing concepts, products, services, brands and things since the late 90s, for millions worldwide. Currently he’s the Creative Director of Nordkapp, a strategic product design consultancy he also co-founded in 2007.

For Interaction 16, he’s responsible for how things look around here, and curating the program with Peter.

Peter Bihr

Co-chair

Peter explores the impact of emerging technologies through consulting, R&D, conferences and publications at The Waving Cat. He co-founded ThingsCon, UIKonf and Cognitive Cities -conferences.

For Interaction 16, he’s responsible for curating the program with Sami.

Otto Virta

The fixer

Otto is a self taught designer and developer with over 15 years of experience in digital products and services. He’s currently working at Foodie.fm, where he tries to define the future of online retail.

For Interaction 16, Otto is responsible for everything that works around here.

Liisa Benmergui

Head of Comms & PR

Liisa is a problem-solver at heart and has worked in the realm of design for the past decade. She currently works as a designer at Frantic.com.

For Interaction 16, Liisa is responsible for communication and PR.

Jonna Rantanen

Head of Volunteering

Jonna is a service and user experience designer with a strong visual and narrative design background.

For interaction 16, she is responsible for the volunteer experience.

Ville Tikkanen

Education summit and workshops

Ville is a human-centric generalist operating fluently in the nexus of media, design and technology.

For Interaction 16, Ville makes sure that everyone in the Educational Summit and conference workshops have what they need.

Jane Vita

Student Design Challenge

Over the past 15 years, She has had the opportunity to gain experience in many of the design competencies, including user experience, interaction design, service design, digital strategy, digital media and visual design, with projects in a range of different industries. Jane has actively participate in the IxDA community since 2007. She was part of the organization team of Interaction South America 13.

For Interaction 16, she is responsible for the Student Design Challenge.

Maria Lumiaho

Stage Host, visual designer

Maria is a Berlin-born multifaceted designer that is crazy in love with the fuzzy front end and big picture painting. She loves dancing with ambiguity and enjoy the journey of the entire spectrum of the design process with in-depth skills in service design and user experience design.

For Interaction 16, she is one of the stage hosts, and also a visual designer.

Harri Kilpiö

Stage host, website

Harri is interested in solving problems with business, technology and design methodologies. He has been around 18 years in the industry and worked in several agencies, one of the first finnish service design agency and software development boutiques.

He also organises geek meets for Frontend.fi.

For Interaction 16, he is one of the stage hosts, and a general website guy.

Antti Onttonen

Website lead

Antti is a senior interaction designer and developer. He has over ten years of experience in designing and developing digital services.

For Interaction 16, he has been working for all things digital.

Niko Pettersen

Web Developer

Niko is a senior web developer with more than a decade of experience in building digital services for the Web. He is currently exploring the interactive space with OiOi by developing smart space solutions which enable people to interact with their surroundings.

He also organises meetups for WordPress Helsinki and Frontend.fi.

For Interaction 16, he has been helping out with the website.

Vesa Härkönen

Transportation & connectivity

Vesa has more than 15 years of experience from design consultancies and design functions inside corporations. Currently, he is creating new services at Elisa Oyj.

Joonas Jahkola

Open studios

Joonas has more than a decade of experience in designing concepts and services for various industries. He’s spent the past few years in Silicon Valley for a Finnish design company Idean. Now he’s back in Helsinki bringing that California sunshine and way of working to the Northern part of the world.

Jukka Koops

Event music

Jukka is a senior designer at Nordkapp and has been designing digital audiovisual things since the late nineties. He has a past in the demoscene, in the Finnish digital design scene and in advertising.

For Interaction 16, Jukka has created the event theme music.

Brenda Sanderson

Executive Director at IxDA

Brenda is IxDA’s Executive Director. Prior to joining IxDA in May 2012, Brenda was Icograda’s Managing Director for seven years. Brenda oversees operations, builds strategic partnerships that further IxDA’s objectives and works closely with the Board of Directors to advance IxDA’s policies and best practices.

Danielle Malik

Director at IxDA

For over a decade, Danielle Malik has helped companies large and small embrace new technologies, define product strategies, and craft compelling user experiences. Danielle Malik currently runs a design studio called Design Equation, which pairs junior designers with nonprofits and early-stage startups in a mentored environment. She is, as they say, living the dream. She founded the IxDA San Francisco chapter in 2008, which today features more than 4000 members.