Black Hole Summer event 7.6.2022 | Speakers

Pia Kaitasuo, Master of Arts and Master of Arts and Cultural Management, has been working as a journalist in Kaleva Media for over 20 years. She is focusing her writing mainly on arts and culture and specializing in creating profiles on people of that area. Pia Kaitasuo is a member of the jury of the Botnia Literature Prize.

An author and a family man, a mathematician by education, studied also literature, philosophy and business administration. Writes funny but weird novels about offices and goblins.

Anne Ryynänen is a business advisor for the creative industries at BusinessOulu. Prior to joining the BusinessOulu team, she worked in the game industry both in sales and business development. She can be described as a business professional with the heart of a humanist.

With a bachelor’s degree in political science and a thorough background in marketing within the publishing and marketing sector I started Grand Agency 15 years ago. The basic premise when we started was to build an independent agency. It has grown to represent over 60 authors and the work is both local and international, it contains everything from branding, presentation and negotiating to supporting authors in their day-to-day work. Building an agency requires knowledge, will and a lot of perseverance.

Katja Törmänen is a writer and creative writing teacher from Oulu. She is a history teacher by training. Törmänen writes because it opens up vistas she could never see in real life and adventures she would probably never dare participate in, even if given the chance. She writes fantasy because it lets her approach what is true in this world. Most fundamentally, she writes because when writing, she is free. Törmänen is currently writing the third part of her series that began with “The Bear’s Bride” (Karhun morsian).

Kati Uusi-Rauva is starting her career as a projects manager in Uniarts Helsinki, building a start-up hub in the university for the first time during its existence. Until this May, Kati has been director of AGMA Agents and Managers in Creative Industries of Finland, offering export, networking and business support for AGMA’s member companies and their principals. Kati has been involved in brand building and creative industries’ business development since the end of the 90’s, and prior to her current role she has been a game and event producer, content buyer, agent, adviser and consultant. Kati is a cultural anthropologist from University of Oulu by her education, and as a native Helsinkian she lives by the Baltic seashore with her family.