User:Ikuinenrouta/Northern Game Summit

Northern Game Summit (NGS) is an annual conference for game professionals in Kajaani, Finland. During the two-day event, speakers give presentations in parallel, depending on the topic. These have included game design, programming, graphics, virtual reality (VR) and business. Some of the topics will vary from year to year. The event usually takes place between September and October.

History
The event was first held at Kajaani University of Applied Sciences in 2012. Speakers came from a number of well-known companies, including Remedy, Rovio, Wooga and Yager.

The event grew in size in 2013 and the venue moved to the Bio Rex cinema in Kajaani. The number of speakers and attendees increased and the event became of higher quality. The event continued its slow growth in both the quality of the speakers and the quality of the event.

In 2016, the event included a third day before the main event, when the Nordic Game Discovery Contest, run by the Nordic Game Community, was held as part of the event. Among the year's keynote speakers were Jim Jiang, technical director of video content for Blizzard Entertainment's Overwatch game, and Tsahi Liberman, founder and CTO of TapOnIt.

Notable speakers

 * Jim Jiang (Blizzard Entertainment)
 * Peter Vesterbacka (Rovio Entertainment)
 * Hunter Grant (Blizzard Entertainment)
 * Timo Heinäpurola (Reforged Studios)
 * Pascal Luban (Game Design Studios)
 * Tuomas Pirinen (Reforged Studios)
 * Allan McKay (Hollywood)
 * Karoliina Korppoo (Colossal Order)
 * Toni Fingerroos (Fingersoft)
 * Kim Lahti (Redlynx)
 * Jay Ranki (Wargaming)