It's the last day of the first year of archipylago and I wanted to take a moment to say a few words.

When I look back at the past 12 months, I remember a lot of faces - both old and new friends -, a lot of great discussions and a lot of new learned things. In the four meetups, three sprints and a variety of Turku Dev Lunches and afterworks, we witnessed a wonderful community starting to form.

What defines a community is its people and the thanks for this year goes to all of you out there who joined the community and made it happen.

First of all, without our amazing speakers, our meetups would have been rather dull. So thanks Aarni Koskela, Magdalena Stenius, Mikko Harju, Calle Laakkonen, Robert Siipola, Mila Grigoryeva and Janne Rönkkö for taking the time to share what you know and have done to help everyone learn something new.

Second, without our sponsors we couldn't have had such great venues to gather together in. The first ones to support a movement like this are the ones who give the all important push of momentum. Thank you Valohai, Taiste, Sofokus and Vincit for hosting our meetups and Business Turku and University of Turku for supporting our sprints.

Third, like an old man in a cave once said, it's dangerous to go alone. It's been a wonderful year to build this together with Dan and I'm grateful he's been on this journey with me.

As 2025 rolls in, we look into the future with optimism and excitement. We'll continue our learning journey of meetups in two weeks, when on 16.1. we visit Taiste's office to learn about new topics and make new friends.

Thanks for 2024 and cheers for 2025!

PS. We're always looking for speakers and partners. If you want to get involved, get in touch! See the contact details in the footer.