Supply Store in Convention

 As usual, Supply Store is open during Convention!

Moem is bringing lots of goodies for us to buy so now is good time to make a little inventory and check what you need. In Supply Store you can pay with cash and card!

Picture: Laura Paronen

Tampere 2024 Convention Bookplates

 We are happy to introduce our logo for Tampere Convention!

It's drawn by Appelsiini's 12-year old daughter Vansku. She doesn't like books and reading, but she loves to draw and paint. When Vansku is forced to read, she reads YA horror and fantasy books and manga.

In our logo there's Näsinneula which is one of famous landmarks in Tampere. Näsinneula is an observation tower and it's located near Lake Näsijärvi, in Särkänniemi amusement park. Although the amusement park is still closed in April, you can visit Näsinneula. Up on the observation deck there's Restaurant Näsinneula. 

You can find bookplates in English and in Finnish from Bookcrossing Supply Store.

Convention Schedule

 Thursday 18th April: Early Bird

18.25 Sauna trip to Rauhaniemi Folk Spa with Pamina_81
- Gathering at bus stop Koskipuisto D (address: Hatanpään valtatie 1). Pamina_81 will take the 18.34 bus from the stop!

Pamina_81 will be waiting for you next to the statue.
Ladybug has been added to pic to cover other people 🐞

18.30 Beer tasting in Konttori, address Verkatehtaankatu 5

- Gathering in front of Beer restaurant Konttori at 18.15. 

Friday 19th April: Convention Day 1

11.00-11.45 Guided visit to Moomin Museum, address: Yliopistonkatu 55 (Tampere-talo)
- Hemulens and Fillyjonks -tour, max 25 participants. 
Please be at the museum lobby 10 minutes before the tour begins!

12.15 Guided visit to Tampere City Main Library Metso, address: Pirkankatu 2
- max 25 participants.
Please be at the library lobby 10 minutes before the tour begins!

13.00-13.45 Guided visit to Moomin Museum, address: Yliopistonkatu 55 (Tampere-talo)
- Tove Jansson as an artist -tour, max 25 participants. 
Please be at the museum lobby 10 minutes before the tour begins!

14.00 Convention venue opens! Registration opens.

15.00 Official Welcome to Tampere 2024 Convention 

- Appelsiini, lii5a, Pamina_81 & pippis

- Greetings from bookcrossing.com

15.30 Ice breaker games with Xarodoc. Raffle and Supply Store opens!

16.00 Bookswap Game with Meganh

16.15 Guided visit to Tampere City Main Library Metso
- max 25 participants.
Leaving with lii5a from venue at 16.00

18.25 Sauna trip to Rauhaniemi Folk Spa
- Leaving with Pamina_81 from venue. Remember to bring your swimming suit and towel!

20.00 Convention venue doors closed

Saturday 20th April: Convention day 2

9.00 Convention venue doors open! Registration open. Raffle and Supply Store open. 

9.30 Good morning! Getting ready for day 2.

- Appelsiini, lii5a, Pamina_81 & pippis

10.00 Guest speaker: Arttu Tuominen

12.00 Guest speaker / Avi Heikkinen

lunch break

14.30 Guest speaker: Mirva Haltia

16.00 Raffle Draw 

17.00 Convention venue doors closed.

18.00 Gathering to go to restaurants for dinner.

Sunday 21st April: Convention Day 3

10.00 Convention venue opens 

11.30 Special Guest

12.00 Group Photo at Convention venue

12.15 Bid for Convention 2025

13.00 Last chance to browse the book buffet!

13.30 Release & Sightseeing Walk

15.00 Sauna trip to Rauhaniemi Folk Spa
- Gathering at the Convention venue after release walk! Please take all your belongings from the venue with you!

16.00 Convention venue doors closed.

Bottomless coffee / tea / juice available at venue. 

picture: Laura Vanzo

Moomins and the World's only Moomin Museum

 We Finns love Moomins and so do many other around the world. As our convention takes place in Tampere, you can't miss visiting Moomin Museum. 

The Moomins are characters in series of novels written by Tove Jansson. Moomins are a little family of white fairy-tale characters and they live in their round house in Moominvalley. In Moomin books you also get to know other characters from Moominvalley. In all, there are nine books in this series. 

During our convention, we are organizing guided tours to Moomin Museum. It's an experiential art museum where you can admire Tove Jansson's original illustrations and beautifully crafted tableaux and so much more!

More information about Moomin Museum: Moomin Museum

Picture: Matias Ahonen

If you wish to buy Moomin -products during your visit to Finland, you can find several different products from playing cards to lamps and other home decoration items in many places. Book shops. department stores and even groceries have many different products. There's also a "official" Moomin shop at Helsinki-Vantaa airport, if you decide to make some last minute Moomin-shopping. 

Guest speaker: Arttu Tuominen

Picture: Sohvi Sillanpää

 Arttu Tuominen is a Finnish author, who works as environmental inspector at days and writes mysteries and crime fiction at nights. His books has been translated to several languages. His book Hyvitys (Eng. Credit) was awarded with the Palle Rosenkrantz Prize by the Danish Academy of Detective Fiction. He was chosen as most positive resident of Pori, his home town. 

Getting around in Tampere

Although Tampere is quite compact and main sights are in centre, some of you might want to explore Tampere more. So here's some tips and information about public transport etc. Please note this post is only about public transportation in Tampere! Helsinki and other cities use different tickets and apps, also long distance travelling tickets are different. 

Bus and tram Nysse

Busses and trams in Tampere use same ticket system, so you only need to buy one ticket. The ticket price is determined by the payment method and the zones selected. There is also a cheaper ticket for childen (7-16 years) and youths (17-24 years).

Tampere area is divided into three payment zones: A, B and C. If travelling only in Tampere, you are staying in AB zone. 

How to buy a ticket?

With your bank or credit card / Contactless payment 

You can pay your ticket in busses and trams using contactless payment. Please note, cash is not accepted! In all busses and trams there's a ticket device. Just select the payment method, check the zones of your journey and pay for the trip. The devide will not ask for you PIN code. Please note, you can use contactless payment for one person at time. If you want to buy several tickets, you need to use another mean of payment. 

Your ticket is valid for 90 minutes or 24 hours if needed. The total price will first be calculated based on your trips during 90 minutes. After this, if you keep travelling, the 24-hour price cap will be applied. Even if you use contactless payment multiple times within these time limits, you will only pay up to the maximum price cap for the zones you have selected! If you have many cards, use only one to pay your trips in Tampere!

If travelling at night (00:00 to 04:40), the night fare will automatically be added to the final price of a single trip. 

Mobile tickets NysseMobiili

You can upload NysseMobiili application from GooglePlay and AppStore. NysseMobiili is using Visa and Mastercard. 

When using NysseMobiili, please note your travel time starts at the time of purchase. So buy the ticket just moments before your trip! In app select ticket type, zones, your customer group and payment method. Check the ticket information, pay for your ticket and then open the ticket. When boarding buss or tram, show the ticket code to the bottom reader of the ticket device on each of your trips. 

If you need to buy multiple tickets, you need to use NysseMobiili. Each ticket must be purchased individually and tickets will appear under Tickets. 

Confirm your ticket

Remember to confirm your ticket on each of your trips! An inspection fee in Tampere is 80€ and can be charged for passengers traveling without a confirmed ticket. So always confirm your ticket with the ticket device. All busses and trams have it near the entrance. 

Routes and schedules

There is a route planner in Nysse website: Route Planner

If you prefer printable timetables, you can find those here: Timetables

If you check bus routes etc. already in advance, please note spring season in timetables start 4th Marc 2024! So choose the right season when searching for timetables! 

Other ways to get around

By your car

Lets be honest here... Tampere hates private driving. Or that's how it feels when trying to drive from place A to B in Tampere centre! Parking in Tampere centre can be a nightmare, but near our venue there are few parking houses. All these parking houses operate via Finnpark and easiest way to pay for your parking is via mobile app Moovy. When driving into parking house, your license plate is recognized and when you leave, your license plate is read again and your credit card charged. 

 P-Näsinkulma, Näsilinnankatu 13

P-Frenckell, Frenckellinaukio 3

P-Plevna, Polttimonkatu 5

If you don't mind little walking, this one is a big parking house and very easy to drive in:

P-Hämppi, Ratapihankatu 39C and Pellavatehtaankatu 6A. If choosing Hämppi, you might want to leave your car near Koskenporras as that's closest exit to our venue. 

More parking places and information about parking charges: Finnpark

Please note, there's no free parking in Tampere centre. Parking control is efficient and brutal. 

City bikes and electric scooters

City bikes and electric scooters are now in garage waiting for spring. The season for city bikes will start on 15th April 2024! 

More information about city bikes and electric scooters later!

Picture: Jukka Salminen 

Taxi

Getting around by taxi might be expensive, but sometimes it's quite handy. Here are numbers for reliable taxi companies and they have fixed prices.

Taksi Tampere phone: 0100 4131

Mansen taksi phone: 044 744 6400

There are several taxi stands in Tampere centre, but basically anyone can stop there and offer a ride for a waiting customer. All official taxi drivers must have a price list available which you can check before getting a ride. 

About our event & schedule

 When writing this, we are negotiating with interesting people who we would love to see in our convention. We already have some guest speakers and other plans to entertain you. 

So here's a rough schedule so you can plan your flights and staying in Tampere.

Thursday 18th April - Early bird mingling and other fun activities. Nothing official, you won't miss anything if you arrive on Friday or later.

Friday 19th April - Bookcrossing Convention 2024. Our official program will start afternoon. We will have some fun ice breakers, the book buffet, getting ready for our guest speakers, visits to museums, other activities.

Saturday 20th April - Convention continues. Guest speakers, visits to museums, other activities. Dinner in selected restaurants.

Sunday 21st April - Ending convention with raffle, packing left over books from buffet and release walk. Closing our venue's doors at 3pm. 

If you have signed up to museum visits, sauna or other activities, those will be organized between our guest speakers, so you won't miss any of those interesting presentations.