OPC Day Finland 2026 12.11.2026 Tampereella - ilmoittaudu mukaan (Register now, this event is in English)
@ Valmet Oyj, Lentokentänkatu 11, 33900 TAMPERE
MAIN THEME: FLUENTLY FROM FACTORY TO THE CLOUD WITH OPC UA
OPC Day Finland is gathering the best experts from the world to discuss the technology and use cases - from sensors to rockets in space! By arranging this yearly event, we want to help everyone working in manufacturing, OT and IT, to apply this standard for smarter solutions in all communication.
The OPC Day Finland 2026 is organized by Finnish Society of Automation, OPC Committee
Welcome - please register by using the link below on this page and join us!
PROGRAMME
08.30
Registration and morning coffee
9.00
Opening
Jouni Aro, Finnish Society of Automation
9.10
Keynote: Valmet DNA & OPC UA evolution
Mika Karaila, Valmet
Mika Karaila has been with Valmet for nearly 40 years.
He currently holds the position of Research Director and serves as Professor of Practice at Aalto University. His work focuses on advancing innovative AI and machine learning models, as well as software solutions tailored for industrial applications.
9.40
OPC UA: The Trusted Semantic Foundation for Industrial Digitalization from OT to IT, Cloud and AI – preserving meaning across the entire lifecycle
Stefan Hoppe, OPC Foundation
Stefan Hoppe is the OPC Foundation President since end 2018 coordinating the OPC expansion into the Internet of Things & Industrie4.0. Stefan has been the Global Vice President since 2014 and the President of the OPC Europe organization since 2010 being the catalyst for initiating liaisons with other industrial consortiums that has resulted in OPC working groups developing companion specifications for the organizations respective information models. Stefan Hoppe studied electrical engineering at the Technical University of Dortmund, Germany. Since 1995 he has worked for BECKHOFF Automation, starting as a software developer later as a lead Product Manager with focus on PC based Automation, connectivity and embedded software products.
9.55
OPC UA Certification: CTT Lite, Compliance, and the Growing Certification Ecosystem
Alexander Allmendinger, OPC Foundation
This session provides an update on the latest OPC Foundation certification activities, including the introduction of CTT Lite and its role in making OPC UA testing more accessible while supporting interoperability and product quality. We will also review recent developments in compliance certification, discuss the expanding certification ecosystem, and share the latest status of the upcoming OPC UA Engineer Certification program and what it means for vendors, integrators, and end users.
Alexander Allmendinger has served as Administrative Director and Secretary to the Board of Directors since January 2024 and as Test Lab Manager of the OPC Foundation European Certification Lab since its establishment in 2016. Through these roles, he works closely with companies and their OPC products and solutions. His experience with communication protocols and OPC UA dates back to its early stages, when he validated initial implementations of the Unified Architecture stacks. He also participates in several working groups, including Security, OPC UA over MQTT, and the harmonization of domain-specific information models, giving him broad insight into the OPC ecosystem.
10.20
Coffee Break, Meet the Sponsors
10.50
OPC UA and the Digital Product Passport
Erich Barnstedt, Microsoft
Erich has worked in various engineering roles at Microsoft for over 23 years, initially in the Windows team and later in the Azure team. Throughout his career, he worked in the automotive and manufacturing verticals and is the founder of both the Windows and the Azure Industrial IoT teams. He is the inventor of many Industrial IoT products from Microsoft. More recently, he shifted his work to the support of open industrial standards in Microsoft products as well as commitments to open-source and consortia work in the Corporate Standards Group at Microsoft as Senior Director and Architect. He is the holder of various IoT-related patents and has a bachelor and two master's degrees in computer science from Trinity College, Dublin.
11.20
From devices to flexibility markets: Integrating OPC UA and data spaces for multi-agent energy flexibility
Ilkka Niskanen, VTT
Ilkka Niskanen is a Senior Scientist in the Advanced Data Spaces team at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. He received his PhD in Information Processing Science from the University of Oulu in 2018, where his research focused on information modelling and data integration in smart spaces. He has authored or co-authored more than 25 scientific publications and has contributed to numerous national and international research and development projects. His current research interests include data spaces, digital twins and data interoperability. He is particularly interested in enabling trusted data sharing and interoperable architectures for cross-organizational digital ecosystems
11.45
Meet the Sponsors
Lunch Break
12.50
How OPC UA enables AI to work with the real world of factory automation
Holger Kenn, VDMA
Holger Kenn works in the Machine Information Interoperability team at VDMA. Previously, he has worked for 17 years in various technical roles at Microsoft. In his last role, he was responsible for the technical strategy for AI business development team and served on the Board of Directors at the OPC Foundation. He initiated and leads the AI working group at OPC Foundation. He holds a Ph.D in Computer Science on Artificial Intelligence from Vrije Universiteit Brussels
13.20
OPC UA and AI in Practice: Configuration, Modeling and Analytics
Pyry Grönholm, Prosys OPC
Pyry Grönholm is the CEO of Prosys OPC, a company specialized in OPC and OPC UA software products and industrial integration solutions. He has over 25 years of experience in the industrial software sector, working across product development, customer projects, and leadership roles. Pyry’s expertise centers on demanding IT/OT integration, OT cybersecurity practices, and the adoption of open, standards-based industrial interoperability. Throughout his career, he has been an active advocate for OPC UA and its role in building scalable, secure and future-proof industrial systems. At Prosys OPC, he leads the company’s strategy, product portfolio development, and customer collaboration in global industrial markets.
13.40
Coffee Break, Meet the Sponsors
14.10
Trends in OPC UA Information Modelling
Wolfgang Mahnke, Unified Automation
Dr. Wolfgang Mahnke has been working at Unified Automation since 2018 and is a recognized expert in industrial automation, with deep expertise in OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA), information modeling, and industrial software systems. He has played a key role in the development and standardization of OPC UA, contributing to its Address Space Model and Information Model specifications. In addition, he serves as an editor of various OPC UA companion specifications, including the Machinery specification, helping to advance standardized information models and interoperability across industrial domains. As co-author of the book OPC Unified Architecture, he brings significant technical knowledge of industrial communication systems and supports the development of secure, standardized, and interoperable solutions for industrial automation.
14.40
From 57 Use Cases to One Information Model: How the French Food Industry Is Getting Digital Ready with OPC UA
Etienne Rossignon, Sterfive
Etienne Rossignon is the founder of Sterfive and a recognized expert in OPC UA and industrial software, with more than 25 years of experience. In 2014, he created node-opcua, the open-source OPC UA SDK for Node.js and TypeScript, which he still maintains and which is now downloaded over 400,000 times a month and used by companies such as ABB, Siemens, Valmet, Renault, Tulip and FlowFuse, Pellenc ST,Scantech, Teeptrak, CybusIo. Through Sterfive, founded in 2017, he develops tools that make OPC UA easier to deploy at scale, including a modern Global Discovery Server for certificate management and a model-as-code approach to information modelling. Earlier in his career, he invented PowerINSPECT, the 3D inspection software developed by Delcam (now Autodesk), and held executive R&D roles at Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence. He contributes the OPC UA modelling to the Agro-Digital Ready initiative, and Sterfive is a member of the OPC Foundation and umati.
15.00
Break, Meet the Sponsors
15.30
OPC UA Security Introduction
Jouni Aro, Prosys OPC
Jouni Aro is the CTO of Prosys, working at the core of OPC and OPC UA technologies. He leads OPC UA product development and acts as the chief architect behind most Prosys OPC products, focusing on interoperable and future-proof industrial connectivity. He is also a long-standing and actively contributing member of OPC Foundation working groups and the Technical Advisory Council. Jouni is the Chairman of the OPC Committee at the Finnish Society of Automation, a member of the IEC OPC UA standardisation committee and the ISPE Pharma 4.0 Plug and Produce Working Group. He is also a member of the Aalto Factory of Future Advisory Board
15.40
Quantum Safe Journey
Suvi Lampila, SSH Communications Security
Suvi Lampila, a fellow at SSH Communications Security, has 25+ years of experience with different cryptographic solutions in large enterprise and government environments involving technologies such as Secure Shell, TLS, PKI, and encrypted network traffic auditing. She provides guidance to engineers across product teams in Post-Quantum Cryptography and PKI and is actively involved in developing SSH’s products for a quantum-safe future. She also guides organisations on their quantum-safe journey to migrate their security infrastructures from traditional cryptography to PQC. She is one of the author’s of “Kvanttiteknologian tulevaisuus ja kvanttiturvallinen internet“ report published in 2025 by the Committee for the Future of the Parliament of Finland.
16.10
There Is a Standard for This: Fleet-Wide Certificate Management with the OPC UA GDS
Etienne Rossignon, Sterfive
16.40
Final Q&A
17.00
End of the Day
PRICE AND REGISTRATION
Registration fee
- 120 EUR + VAT 25,5 % for members of Finnish Society of Automation
- 140 EUR + VAT 25,5 % for non-members of Finnish Society of Automation
includes admission to all the sessions and exhibition of the OPC Day Finland 2026, lunch, coffees and the material of the day
Registration
Please, register here: https://www.lyyti.in/OPC_Day_Finland_2026
SPONSORS
ACCOMMODATION (Book soon, Tampere is very popular!)
For your stay at Tampere for participating OPC Day Finland 2026 we recommend for example:
Original Sokos Hotel Ilves
Hatanpään Valtatie 1, 33100 Tampere
Ilves.tampere@sokoshotels.fi, +358 20 1234 631
145 EUR Standard single room / night
175 EUR Standard twin room / night
Reservations with the code: OPCDAYFIN26 (by phone and email) BOPCDAYFIN26 (internet reservations) at Original Sokos Hotel Ilves
There are also hotels even more nearer to the railway station
Scandic Tampere Station
Ratapihankatu 37, Tampere (0 km to city centre)
tamperestation@scandichotels.com, +358 300308432
We are happy to offer a discount on room reservations at Scandic.
Reservations can be easily made with code CGRO through the following link: BOOK WITH SCANDIC.
Through the link, guests can directly book rooms with discounted rate. Guests can choose their preferred room type, and receive an additional discount when paying for the reservation upon booking. The cancellation policy for individual bookings depends on the booking type chosen by the guest. To confirm the reservation, guests must provide a valid credit card information. Rooms are subject to availability and should be booked 10 days before arrival at the latest. Scandic Friends members should also check for available loyalty offers.
Hotelli Torni
Ratapihankatu 43, 33100 Tampere
torni.tampere@sokoshotels.fi, +358 20 1234 634
Booking with daily prices: Hotelli Torni
More hotels in Tampere
More information about hotels and accomondation in Tampere: Visit Tampere
The OPC Day Finland 2026 is organized by Finnish Society of Automation, OPC Committee
For any further assistance, please contact: office@automaatioseura.fi
OPC UA is Open Platform Communications, Unified Architecture, a standard technology that enables secure and reliable, platform independent interoperability in industrial automation and other industries. (https://opcfoundation.org/about/what-is-opc/)
All rights for changes reserved.
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