The 19th Arctic Passion Seminar was held on 5 March 2026 in Helsinki.

Seminar at Railotech

Our traditional annual customer event this year was a special one. We introduced our new name, Railotech, together with improved brand and visual image. Arctic Passion Seminar guests were the first to whom Mika Hovilainen, Railotech´s CEO, presented these.

To highlight the change, we produced a new video, updated the logo and visual appearance, and launched new website.

We organised the event for the 19th time this year. The format of the seminar and the topics addressed by the speakers continued a long-standing traditiona. As always, more than 100 Arctic stakeholders, specialists, and other professionals gathered to discuss current issues related to shipping, shipbuilding, and other activities in ice-covered waters.

In the program

The opening remarks on behalf of Sakari Puisto, the Minister of Economic Affairs and Employment of Finland, were delivered by Reko-Antti Suojanen from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment. The program also included his own presentation in the role of ICE Pact National Coordinator.

This year’s guest speakers included Deputy Commisioner, Shipbuilding and Materiel Robert Wight from Canadian Coast Guard, Executive Vice President Darren Savoye from Bollinger Shipyards (Lockport, LA, USA), CEO Mika Nieminen from Rauma Marine Constructions (Finland), CEO John McCarthy from Seaspan Shipyards (Vancouver, BC, Canada), Maritime Specialist Lauri Kuuliala from Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency, Commodore Claus Lundholm Andersen from Danish Ministry of Defence Acquisition and Logistics Organisation (DALO), Lieutenant Commander, Chief of Ship Technical Unit Ville Puustinen from Finnish Border Guard and Rear Admiral, Commander Tuomas Tiilikainen from the Finnish Navy. The final presentation of the day was given by Assistant Professor Saara Matala from Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden).

In addition, presentations were given by Railotech’s CEO Mika Hovilainen, Lead Research Engineer Riikka Matala, and Head of Consultancy and Technology Development Rob Hindley.

Ice model test demonstration

As part of the Arctic Passion Seminar, participants were once again invited to see a demonstration in Railotech´s ice laboratory. This year the model in use was the new Finnish icebreaker “Aino”. The guests could observe the self-propelled model breaking thick level ice from above as well as from below through the glass bottom of our ice tank.

New 27th issue of the Arctic Passion News magazine

The latest issue of our newsletter, Arctic Passion News #27, was published for the seminar.

We would like to thank the speakers and other guests as well as our own personnel for their participation in and organisation of this important event.

Some presentations from the event