Towel Day 2010

Towel Day 2010



Towel Day 2010 offers unparalled networking opportunities for Symbian members, package owners and committers. Attendance is limited to 100 people, so register now!


Held this year at gorgeous Suomenlinna Sea Fortress, Helsinki, this one-day, members-only event will feature a very fun opening session for all participants, after which we will break into two groups: a general members meeting and a workshop for package owners and committers.


And of course, all attendees receive a commemorative towel!


Sponsors

Towel Day is only possible through the generosity of Comarch, Digia, Elektrobit, Futurice, Ixonos, Nokia and Sasken, who have sponsored the day and contributed countless hours to planning the agenda and logistics. Thank you to these committed members for creating the day for the rest of us to enjoy!


Important Travel Notes

  • You will have to take a ferry from Kauppatori Market Square to Suomenlinna, which takes about 15 minutes. The ferry timetables can be found here.
  • Once you arrive at the Main Quay on Suomenlinna (just north of number 8 on the map), you will have to walk to Tenalji von Fersen, which is number 26 on the map. The walk takes about 15 minutes.
  • Some of the roads are cobblestone, so wear comfortable shoes!
  • Because you won't want to miss the keynote speech at 09:00, you should be on the 07:40 ferry or an earlier one.

Draft Agenda

NOTE: The agenda is subject to change.


Plenary Session

  • Keynote: John Forsyth, Leadership Team, Technology & Delivery Management, Symbian
  • Package Owner Award
  • Cool Projects Update
  • Symbian Roadmap Update


Member Sessions

  • Operator and OEM Panel
  • Sasken: Social Mobile Framework
  • Comarch: Benefits of Contribution
  • Futurice: Qt for Symbian
  • Nokia: Kernel -- High Impact Software
  • Symbian and Elektrobit: Councils Update
  • Symbian: Tools for Symbian


Package Owner Sessions

  • Un-Panel: Package Owners Share Experiences
  • Wild Ducks: Bringing up Symbian on a Beagle Board (and building a community in the process)
  • Learning from Community Building Projects
  • How package based contribution can improve working with the community
  • Kernel -- How to Make Everybody Win
  • Social Mobile Framework: Introduction and Update
  • Process and Tools Changes That Will Affect Your Package

Why is it called Towel Day?

Towel Day is celebrated every year on 25th May by wearing a towel all day, as a commemoration of the life and work of the late Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. In the Hitchhiker's Guide, it says that a towel "is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have."


We held the first-ever Symbian member event in Finland on 25th May 2009. Because of the affection many programmers feel for The Hitchhiker's Guide, we called the event Towel Day, and gave attendees a souvenir towel. Although officially this year's event is supposed to be called the Symbian Finland Forum, we have kept the name Towel Day for sentimental reasons.