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He says he has never been one to just follow the crowd. "I tend to think quite left-field and choose to be different (sometimes this gets me into trouble, but on the whole it has been good). For example, as an avid photographer, if everyone is using Nikon or Canon, I will deliberately look at what other options I have (probably the reason why I have been an Olympus user for many years now)."
While he initially did have a measure of trepidation in heading the organising team, Nykvist is happy with the way things have gone so far. "I am taking a relaxed calm approach to the conference (as best as possible)," he said. "We have about a third of our anticipated delegates registered at this stage and would
really like to see the numbers increase in this area. I am most confident that the attendees (delegates and speakers) are really going to enjoy this conference and appreciate the little things that we have done differently this year.
"I think we are on track to have a great conference. We have a great team, venue, keynotes and speakers and delegates so I think it is really going to be an awesome conference. We have a good variety of presentations and miniconfs, including a rocketry miniconf which is seeing a lot of interest."
Nykvist says he will evaluate the event after it is over based around the feedback from both delegates and presenters. "The conference is organised by a team of volunteers for the free and open source community. Consequently, we strive to provide the best conference experience for this community and try to ensure that each and every person who is a part of the conference can take something new and positive away with them as well as make new connections in their areas of interest. It is not unusual to see quite a lot of new development work or development teams also form during this event."
Organising the LCA, he says, has been the highlight of his professional life thus far. "While not specifically techie, it is an opportunity for me to give back to this community that so much supports the many IT projects that I undertake. For the past 10 years or so I have developed and supported international web-based projects, some of these receiving rewards and high distinctions."
When Nykvist is not sitting in front of a computer or running seminars and projects he enjoys outdoor activities. "I really enjoy camping and four-wheel driving with my wife and children and try to get away as much as possible, though the weather has not been that forgiving this year," he says. "I free dive, scuba dive (instructor since 1995), cycle, climb mountains (most recent was Mt Kinabalu) and keep bees.
"I am an avid photographer and enjoy underwater photography when the weather is good. My wife, Christine also shares a passion for education and in particular language education. As a consequence of this, our children are bilingual with German as a first language."
