Guild events

Diskonttaus

Diskonttaus is the guild’s annual gala, celebrating the whole Prodeko community. Guild members and invited guests, dressed in evening wear and academic insignia, enjoy fine food and refreshing drinks. The anniversary celebration usually includes a formal cocktail reception, where the guests present the guild with gifts; the main dinner, spent at the tables; and the after-party, followed the next day by the herring breakfast, better known as sillis.

Diskonttaus is organised by the Diskonttaus director and their committee, and the help the freshmen give the organisers is invaluable. Diskonttaus is traditionally held in mid-October. In the anniversary week before it, the bartenders also host the week’s parties and cultural events.

Prodeko Seminar

The Prodeko Seminar was created to bring the guild, the alumni and the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management closer together. In recent years it has grown into something big, and it is often called the guild’s main event of the year. In 2018 the day was held at Dipoli, with more than 500 members of the Prodeko community taking part.

Each year the seminar is built around a new theme. The day includes workshops and talks from an internationally known line-up of speakers, and an evening programme where the whole rainbow crowd can have fun together over good food, music and more. The seminar is organised by the seminar tsar with their committee, helped by the guild board.

Sikajuhlat

Sikajuhlat is a Prodeko tradition decades old: the earliest records of it go back to the 1970s, when it was mentioned as the half-year party of Polyteknikkojen Raittiusseura. The party is known and awaited by students all over the capital region, and despite the large number of tickets they almost always sell out before you can say pig.

Sikajuhlat is also Prodeko’s freshman party, which means the freshmen organise it and are responsible for its concept and its success. Each year has a new theme, which sets how Servin Mökki is decorated and how the Sikaspeksi play is performed and filmed.

Autumn sitsit

The autumn sitsit are the first and most formal sitsit of Prodeko’s academic year, and where new students get their first taste of Prodeko’s sitsit culture. With help from the board, the IE and the bartenders put together a dizzying evening with no shortage of food or drink. The song leaders (lukkarit) give their best, and there are often surprise performers too. The day after, the weary party crowd retreats together to a herring breakfast hosted by Polyteknikkojen Raittiusseura.

Wappu sitsit

If the autumn sitsit dazzle with glamour and culinary delights, the Wappu sitsit have usually left guild members full of great experiences and Wappu spirit. Led by the IE, the board gets the venue ready for the wildest party of the year, where the atmosphere has tended to reach legendary heights.

These sitsit are not to be missed, and freshmen in particular are always guaranteed a place at the top party of the Wappu season. You may also see traditional performances that guild members have come to love. The Wappu sitsit are held in Wappu week, at the end of PoRa’s Vesiviikko.

Paikka X

Paikka X (“Place X”) is where guild members welcome the new freshmen into Prodeko. The place changes every year and stays a mystery: guild members only find out where it is once the freshmen are already there, on the first day of orientation week.

Guild members get to meet and chat with our new students, enjoy good food, often a sauna too, and the student theatre, the spex. For many guild members this good-hearted event is a dear tradition that starts the academic year and brings together students from freshmen to fabus.

Other sitsit

During the academic year the guild holds academic table parties, sitsit, about once a month. Besides the autumn and Wappu sitsit, there are other traditional sitsit every year, and some exciting new ones find their way onto the calendar too.

The most traditional are the Misunderstood sitsit (Väärinymmärrettyjen sitsit), where we party with Athene, the Guild of Architects and Nuoret Designerit, and the Oktoberfest sitsit with Pykälä and LKS. In recent years we have also held sitsit with Athene, Inkubio, the University of Helsinki’s education students and many other student associations all over Finland.

Cultural events

The guild organises several cultural events every year, with hardly any limits on what they can be: guild members have drawn croquis with the architects, watched films at Otaniemi’s Kinopoli and gone camping in the forests of Nuuksio.

Kotimaan PuoliPitkä

Kotimaan PuoliPitkä, better known as KPP, is Prodeko’s annual excursion within Finland. It is traditionally a bus trip criss-crossing the country, and the roughly four-day programme includes interesting company visits with surprising extras (how does a ride in a tank sound?) and adventures with a great crowd.

KPP is very popular, and queuing for a place is an art form and a shared experience of its own. It is usually held in March.

Ulkomaan PuoliPitkä

Ulkomaan PuoliPitkä, or UPP, is held every year, usually in September. Like its domestic counterpart, the excursion includes visits to companies, this time further away, and relaxed time together. Recent destinations include Madrid, Berlin and London.

Pitkä XQ

Pitkä XQ is a longer trip abroad, organised about every four years. It lasts about a month and is planned over the year before. The project takes effort from the whole guild and the organisers in particular, but the trip rewards everyone, and people keep wanting to organise it again and again. Early in 2019 the trip went to Asia, and in 2024 to Africa.