Day 1
When I first came to Mindtrek Wednesday morning I found the best thing about the conference right away. While I was waiting for the first lecture I was going to attend I found these incredibly comfortable chairs. I sat down and stayed there for half an hour. It was incredibly soft, but still firm enough so you don't sink in too much. The shape of the chair was ideal for your whole body. I could've spend the whole day just napping in there. Sadly I had a lecture to attend to.
First lecture I attended was three 15 minute presentations about gamification. Honestly I forgot most of it the minute I stepped out of the room. It was not a promising start for my Mindtrek experience. The speakers were more researchers than experienced public speakers. They didn't have the charisma you need when giving a presentation. It felt like school. They probably had done really good research on their topics, but I couldn't tell. After the lecture it was time for lunch.
Lunch was chicken sauce with rice. It was quite good and filled me up nicely.
After lunch I went to another lecture held by Peter Vesterbacka. I wasn't sure what to expect, I was just told that he is one of the Angry Birds -guys. He's presentation was really good. He obviously had a lot of experience with public speaking and he interacted with audience really well. He spoke about taking Finnish education worldwide. According to him for example in Singapore there is so much schoolwork for children that parents have to go to school too just to know how to help them. The amount of schoolwork also increased the suicide rates dramatically. Vesterbacka didn't go much into detail about how he'd bring Finnish education system to these countries, but he had such a good confident attitude that I could really appreciate the presentaton.
After Vesterbacka's presentation I was satisfied and headed home for the day.
Day 2
So there's this micronation called Liberland that exists between Croatia and Serbia. One of the things I was most curious about in Mindtrek was that the president of Liberland would be giving a presentation about the country. Sadly the president himself canceled and was replaced my a Finnish consultant of Liberland.
Consultant wasn't the best speaker but clear enough to explain about this bizarre little project called Liberland. It's a country that had half a million members. No country has recognized Liberland as a state other than Somaliland, which also hasn't been recognized. The most ridiculous thing about Liberland for me was that they call themself a meritocracy. Meaning that the people who give most money to country have the most votes. This made the whole idea sound ridiculous. Legal corruption.
But don't worry they have beach party coming up!
Liberland was quite entertaining. During the Q&A at the end of the presentation, this guy rises and asks "are you serious?". Respect for that guy for asking the real questions. But who knows, maybe after few years Liberland has taken over the world and we all are citizens... (probably not)
Next up was lunch. Salmon with potatoes. I'm not a big fish guy, but this salmon was so juicy I really liked it.
After lunch I saw one more presentation. It was about the A.I. Explaining the basics and talking about how to use it for educational purposes. The subject was interesting but I don't think the speaker was the best. I found myself getting distracted a lot and I don't remember much of the presentation. I guess A.I's would exist in school life so that teachers would have more time for students who need the most help?
Conclusion
Mindtrek 2018 was an interesting new experience. I'm happy I attended to Peter Vesterbacka's presentation and the Liberland presentation. Food was good and I will remember those comfortabe chairs of Tampere Hall's second floor forever. However I don't feel like Mindtrek was exactly relevant to my study path and I didn't really know where to go. Also the presentation ability meant a lot to me, compared to the actual subjects.
- O.K.
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