Volunteering at Nordeep 2026

I found out about this event through LinkedIn and applied without much expectation. I thought it might give me a closer look at the startup ecosystem across Finland and the Nordics. What I got was so much more.

I had been to Dipoli before, for the Kubernetes conference, where I met amazing people from around the world. Back then I was an attendee. This time I came back as a volunteer, part of the face of the event.

I volunteered with the Attendee Support team, and I learned a lot from my teammates and team leads along the way. On Day 1 I barely got a moment to walk around, but on Day 2 I managed to visit a few booths including Business Finland, Espoon kaupunki - Esbo stad - City of Espoo, Tampere University, and Turku University of Applied Sciences. I also got to see the matchmaking concept in action for the first time. I had heard about it before but never actually witnessed how it works.

Most of my time went into the info desk: guiding attendees to workshops and stage talks, helping with merchandise, managing lost and found, helping people get their photos at the photo booth, and jumping in wherever the team needed an extra hand.

The best part of the role was hearing directly from attendees. One woman attendee told me it was the best organized event she had ever attended. She said she made great connections and loved the talks. Hearing that meant a lot, because I knew how hard our volunteer team had worked in the weeks leading up to it. kudos to Catherine Anh Lam-Mella and John Cedric Esguerra

Grateful for the opportunity, and a big thank you to my team leads Nasim and Neeraj for their guidance and support throughout. These two days were genuinely fun.