I was born in the tiny and picturesque village of Vilppula in the central part of Finland. My parents were hard working farmers. I was the youngest of three children and thus left alone to read and wonder around the farm while the others busied themselves with their daily routines.
It was a time which saw the migration of the population from an agricultural to an urban way of life in Finland. I sensed that the world was wider than our family fields and developed a very strong desire to one day travel and live in a distant land with no snow! For a country boy such as I it was an unusual aspiration, one that made my parents anxious but nevertheless grew into a strong determination to see the world.
First steps to NZ...
The first step towards my goal was to move to our capital, Helsinki after graduating from High School. I did a series of not-so-interesting jobs but they could not compete with my passion for the theatre. So by 1978 I was ready to take the step into the unknown when I quit my job and started to earn my living as a very young theatre director. Trough trial and error and with the help of positive critiques I managed to develop my skills and competencies in theatre.
In 1980 I was accepted to the University of Tampere on to the faculty of drama - but I was never to complete the course because Mr. Väinö Vainio, a famous Finnish radio play director found me and lured me to join his ranks in the Radio Theatre of Finnish Broadcasting Company. Mr. Vainio turned out to be a rigourous but fair mentor and to him I owe a debt of gratitude. He taught me everything about theatre and after a few years of assisting him and directing radio plays I left Tampere and started my carer as a free lance director in the mid size country town of Jyväskylä.
Though I received exceptionally good critiques and my experience deepened profoundly I still harboured the intense desire to create something really new.
From Theatre to Digital
The turning point was the day I bought my first Mac in 1987 and sold my DOSmachine. I began to furiously delve deeper in the well spring of multimedia. Appleʼs HyperCard made it possible for the first time in history for a computer illiterate to create something weird and exiting.
I created some solutions and sent my disks to a local Apple reseller who then unbeknownst to me sent them to Apple Finland. It was then that I received the strangest call ever: the secretary of the managing director of Apple Finland called and asked me to train THEM! They had seen my work and were amazed that I seemed to be the only person in Finland who had grasped the meaning and essence of their software. I was stunned. When she told how much they would pay me for the training I had only two questions: what should I wear and when do we start. And that was the farewell to theatre.
New life - new media
I moved back to Helsinki and started to work as a training manager at the biggest and most innovative training company Kasanen Koultusyhtiöt. I then went to San Francisco to learn more about multimedia at Macromedia (those days MacroMind). I was MacroMind Director developer and my mind was burning in high flames for multimedia. Those weeks at MacroMind showed me that even in the remote Finland we were at the leading edge in technology and expression.
When I came back I knew that I had what it took to start to develop content creation and production processes for multimedia in Finland. After pitching my ideas in several places I quickly understood that there were no companies or investors who would believe in my predictions about digital future. So - I simply founded with my very young (17) friend Tatu Kuivalahti the first Finnish digital communications design company To The Point Ltd in 1991.
To The Point became a legend. We grew 300% every year. We employed more and more talented people. And because there was no official education for this new realm of communications and design, we had to train those young talents in every aspect by ourselves. We won many awards - more than all of our competitors combined.
From teaching to corporate responsibilities
After To The Point Ltd. I was appointed as a Principal Lecturer and Head of the Multimedia Department of Lahti Polytechnics Institute of Design. However, I was soon head hunted by Tietoenator, which is the leading and biggest IT-service provider in Scandinavia and one of the biggest in Europe. My task there was to organise and develop e-learning businesses for Tietoenator.
I saw quickly and clearly that e-learning did not belong inside a huge IT corporation because it is not merely technology, but a human resource development. I prepared to leave, and together with my boss, I helped them to sell the business unit to a promising small training company.
There and back again...
Thus I was free again after three years of experience as the director of a small business unit in a huge corporation. I founded WellWrittenWords Luukkonen Ltd. to be my small but effective weapon in the fields of digital communications. I also co-founded with my young friend, Timo Railo, Design Agency Tuuletin.
Then life changed its direction once again, and I found my self flying to New Zealand where I was headhunted to become the Head of School at Media Design School in Aukcland, 2006. After a year and a half in Auckland I decided to move to a more rural and genuine kiwi environment, and now I am here in Palmerston North working for the coolest web developer in town, Spinning Planet (www.spinningplanet.co.nz).
Innovation, intuition and practical tools
During my years of entrepreneurship I had been interested in developing new ways of thinking, creating and presenting my thoughts. I wanted also to document my findings in some form or another. So I started to write books about digital communications. I have written five books on the subject so far. 
They cover digital media from content script and e-learning to design and from production of multimedia to intranet and extranet solutions and the last book was about visual thinking. Unfortunitely they are available only in Finnish. At the present moment I'm working on my first book in English called The Guide to Digital Story Telling. It should be ready for publishing by the end of August but the year is secret...
I have also been a popular lecturer. During the years of my work in digital media I have given well over 700 lectures and workshops about digital media, content creation and communications at major Finnish Universities and at the leading training companies in Finland both in Finnish and in English.
I have always been an innovator and practical process oriented achiever. I'm leader in my soul and team player in my ways of dealing with people. I know how to create a good working atmosphere and enthusiasm amongst creative people. Maybe my biggest talent is the ability to find people who are very very much more talented than I am.
Evening star showed a new direction
Because work has been everything to me it was a big turning point for me to get married in 2001 in my mature years. My Japanese wife Taeko soon gave birth to our evening star Marius Ariel, who was born in 2002. Because Marius is already a big boy now I decided last year (2010) to take the challenge and start to study again. If everything goes well I should graduate in mid 2012 and have an Exec MBA under my belt. I am a life long learner and this journey at Massey University has been a fantastic experience. I just hope that there could be 8 days in a week.... When I have scarce free time you can spot our little family enjoying sandwiches at Himatangi beach or biking along the Manawatu river. New Zealand has become a home for me and I feel that this is the place I belong to.