SID family gathered together to celebrate the 10 year journey of the Master´s degree programme

All current students of the programme, alumni, advisory board members, lecturers and other staff members who have given their effort for this programme were invited to the event. Nearly 100 participants from all over the world and especially alumni from different working environments and organizations were gathered together.

The official part of the programme started with the opening words of Laurea’s current Vice President of Education, original founder and Head of the Degree Programme of SID Katri Ojasalo. She revealed the actions and history of the establishment of the degree programme and higlighted the key persons of Laurea staff who have been there to support and develop the programme right from the beginning during the whole 10 year journey. However, she highlighted that all members of the SID community have been needed to build up the community, SID atmosphere and the master’s degree programme that is well known even today all over the world.

Current Head of the Programme Virpi Kaartti presented the history of Service Design at Laurea, which has started already in 2006 by defining the angle Laurea has on service business in the form of service design. The first SID master’s student group started its studies in 2009 and from the beginning of 2011, a new student group has been taken to the programme each year.  Over the years, SID members have organized international SID seminars, ServDes conference and several Service and Game Jams to raise awareness of service design, share the knowledge from the field, and reach people outside of the Laurea community.

Two alumnae of the programme, Ida Rainio and Pia Rytilahti, shared their stories and work experiences with the audience and we were glad to hear two different career paths after the SID studies. Ida Rainio told about her career as a designer at design agencies (earlier at Hellon, currently as Senior Consultant, Strategic Design at Futurice) and in her speech she thanked the teachers and supervisors of the SID programme for not letting her take the easy path in her studies and with her thesis. All pain in the process was worth it and in 2015, she was awarded the Finnish service alliance (FSA) Service Thesis of the Year. In her thesis, Rainio studied how corporate change can be co-created together with employees and proposed a service concept to facilitate the change process.

Pia Rytilahti, who works at Kesko as Head of Knowledge Work, told in her speech about her daily work and how she applies service design principles in her management work. We also heard about her thesis, and saw concretely how it has been transformed into reality at the K-Kampus. The purpose of her thesis was to design an internal customer-centric service concept. The new concept was the first step of innovative internal service offering as a part of the changing working culture in the company.

After the presentations and speeches, the evening continued with mingling and free networking with good food, drinks and of course birthday cake. For the outsider in the community, it was overwhelming to see the spirit, warmth and togetherness of the Laurea SID family, which is full of members willing to share their experiences and best practices, and gladly welcomes new members to the family.

While the evening was great, there is more to come: a publication to be published this autumn about the phases and outcomes of the SID programme, where especially the alumni have been sharing their stories and how they see the programme today after graduation. Stay tuned!

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