Arrival to Helsinki by airport:

The most convenient way to arrive to the downtown is to take the bus from the airport to the railway station in the heart of Helsinki. The bus number is the 615, don't care about the letter next to number, all of them gets you to the same place. Another is the Finnair City Bus from the same platforms, a bit more expensive, it stops at Scandic Continental hotel. The best way to check the route from Airport to Helsinki and your hotel is to use the public transportation planner system Journey Planner. The trip takes 30 to 40 minutes depending on the traffic.

TIP!: the public transportation in Helsinki is not cheap, a single ticket costs 4 euros if you move inside the metropolitan area and 2.40 euros inside Helsinki. We recommend to get a 2 or 3-day ticket for 2 zones from the R-Kioski kiosk in the airport (upper floor, departure terminal T1) so you can travel as much as you want. This will also cover bus to the University and the ferry to Suomenlinna island.

You can also get a taxi just outside both the international and domestic arrival halls. There are both regular taxis and the yellow airport taxis. With the latter you can usually share the costs with other passengers going the same way. The taxi operators have service desks in the Terminal B. Taking a regular taxi to hotel might costs about 35-40 euros and takes about 20--25 minutes. All taxis take credit cards, at least Visa and MasterCard/EuroCard.

Staying at the Helsinki centre

Included in the map, there is the location of the main hotels we have recommended you. In addition, we mark the main railway station, the Kamppi bus station and the harbor where you need to take the boat to arrive to the Suomenlinna island on Monday. Again, I suggest to you to use the Journey planner to know exactly which is the fastest route to arrive from your hotel to the destination.

There is an excellent English Helsinki Visitors Guide with all restaurants, events, and so on, including printable city and tram route maps on page 33 and following. Suomenlinna infos and maps start on page 8.

Interactive: to zoom around checking the city and conference location and hoteks, we have prepared a Google Earth kml file for you. You can also show or hide interactive Google map with conference waypoints and with the draggable guy open as StreetView below.

How to arrive to the conference place

The conference will be held in the Suomenlinna fortress. Suomenlinna is one of the symbols of Helsinki and is spread along six islands in front the Helsinki coast. It is really easy to reach by a public transportation with boat. The boat leaves every 40 min from the market square (Check the map). The one-way trip takes only 15 minutes. Assistances are expected to take the ferry at 07:40 or 08:20, not later. You can use the 2/3-day ticket or buy the ferry ticket in the machine.

The conference hall is just in front the harbour where you will arrive.

Conference dinner

The conference dinner will be held in the sauna of Otaniemi, in the Aalto University campus area. The building is called Rantasauna and we will have for our use two saunas, dressing rooms, kitchen and a big common area to have the dinner. Dinner will consist on Finnish specialities buffet and some drinks.

Draft Agenda

Monday 21 of June 2010

Tuesday 22 of June 2010