It seems to be more challenging to find common human interfaces in a multiscalar world of dyssynchronity and polyphony. However, places do have a conciliatory nature where they lean on fairly familiar scales of people’s everyday life and speech acts — places bring things, actors, visionaries and administration into the same picture, concurrently, mixing and cropping things spontaneously and vividly.

As organisers, we hope that this 2019 annual meeting of Finnish geographers’, with the theme, the power of place, will inspire participants to ponder various interesting questions. What makes places and regions important focalization points of societal development issues? What kind of places can be described as wellbeing and successful? How might charming characters of place empower citizens or enchant those experiencing them?

At the same time, places can be wicked while they bring to light the issues that would otherwise remain shadowed, such as, inequality, segregation or climate change. Places unveil and are indicators of vitality. Nevertheless, for us as geographers, places are spatial phenomena in time. Through places, even different dialects of academic geography, converse naturally between each other.

On behalf of the organising committee and The Geographical Society of Finland, we warmly welcome you to Vaasa!