Megatrends

Based on the overall theme of the conference, Barth Eide will talk about the present situation from his point of view. He talks about his experiences from the WEF and about politicians’ ability to change fast enough and in line with business

Mr. Espen Barth Eide was appointed United Nations Special Adviser on Cyprus by former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2014. He continued in this capacity under current Secretary-General António Guterres until August 2017, when he stepped down from his UN role in order to engage in the election campaign in Norway.

Between 2014 and 2016, Mr. Eide was Managing Director and Member of the Managing Board of the World Economic Forum in Geneva.

Mr. Eide was a member of the Norwegian government for 10 years. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs (2012-2013), Minister of Defence (2011-2012), Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs (2000-2001 and 2010-2011) and Deputy Minister of Defence (2005-2010). In these positions, Mr. Eide was engaged in a range of Norwegian-supported peace and reconciliation efforts globally.

Silvija Seres is an investor and developer of technologies and companies. Her background is from research and education within software, where she did a PhD in algorithm optimization at Oxford University, programming at Alta Vista, and leadership at Fast Search and Transfer and Microsoft. Silvia has served on more than 30 major boards in private and public sector, and her current directorships include the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation and the Oslo Stock Exchange. She has recently developed the most popular technology podcast in Norway, and is passionate about lifelong learning in practice, now.

The fourth industrial revolution and the future of work

The fourth industrial revolution changes how we work and who we are. The exponential development in digital infrastructure affects all other technologies in the same exponential manner, so that sensors, robotics, virtual reality, transportation and energy technologies and biology, medicine, materials science and blockchain all merge into a dizzying cocktail of solutions for the future. They do not only provide new efficiencies. They also transform business and society. These three changes (efficiencies, business transformation and social transformation) are felt ever more strongly in all value chains. Silvija explores their consequences and strategies for constructive futures.

The business and politics of data

The fourth industrial revolution is based on a cyber-digital cocktail of technologies, where the physical, biological, financial, social and legal worlds converge on a common platform and a common basic ingredient: data. The five most valuable companies in the world today all come from software, and their basic business model is to improve efficiencies in all value chains and all industries based on the data they amass. The way we deal with data will challenge and change not only our work and our capital, but also our societies and our humanity.

What great innovators do differently

Take a look at any successful enterprise and you’ll find innovation at its core. Innovation, properly understood, is how people come up with novel solutions to important problems. The tricky part is that every organization faces different types of challenges. Some, focus on improving old technologies, while others, strive to make fundamental new discoveries. That’s why there is no “one true path” to innovation.

Greg Satell is a popular speaker, adviser and bestselling author of Cascades: How to Create a Movement that Drives Transformational Change, whose work has appeared in Harvard Business Review, Barron’s, Forbes, Inc and Fast Company. His earlier book, Mapping Innovation, was selected as one of the best business titles of 2017.

An accomplished entrepreneur, executive and one of the foremost experts on innovation today, Greg speaks to audiences around the world and works with leading organizations to better compete in today’s disruptive marketplace. He was recently named by Innovation Excellence as #2 on its global list of “Top 40 Innovation Bloggers” and by IDG as one of “10 Digital Transformation Influencers to Follow Today.” Greg helps successful organizations overcome disruption and blaze a path to a better future.

A global citizen, Greg spent 15 years living and working in Eastern Europe where, among other things, he managed a leading news organization during Ukraine’s Orange Revolution. You can learn more about Greg on his website, GregSatell.com and follow him on Twitter @DigitalTonto.

The Value of Diversity

Companies are often more concerned about being politically correct than seeing the benefits of diversity. What do they miss? Why is it profitable to think about diversity?

Yassmin Abdel-Magied is a Sudanese-Australian writer, broadcaster and award-winning social advocate.

Yassmin trained as a mechanical engineer and worked on oil and gas rigs around Australia for almost half a decade before becoming a full-time writer and broadcaster in 2016. Yassmin’s critically acclaimed essays have been published in numerous anthologies, including the Griffith Review, the best-selling It’s Not About The Burqa and The New Daughters of Africa. Yassmin has also appeared at literary festivals around the world and her commentary can be found in publications like The Guardian, Teen Vogue and The New York Times.

Yassmin’s broadcasting portfolio is diverse: she presented the national TV show Australia Wide, a podcast on becoming an F1 driver, and a series on Breaking Barriers for Virgin. After hosting the internationally released documentary, The Truth About Racism, she created Hijabistas, a series looking at the modest fashion scene in Australia. Yassmin is also a regular contributor to the BBC, the hugely popular Guilty Feminist podcast and various media outlets around the world.

Yassmin has delivered keynotes and workshops in over 20 countries on unconscious bias and inclusive leadership, working with the likes of IBM, Chevron and Visa. Her TED talk, What does my headscarf mean to you, has been viewed over two million times and was chosen as one of TED’s top ten ideas of 2015. A regular viral sensation, Yassmin’s appearance on Q&A with former Senator Jacqui Lambie was viewed over 12 million times in less than a week, spurring a global conversation about being a young Muslim woman of colour in the West today.

With over a decade’s experience in non-profit governance, Yassmin founded her first organisation, Youth Without Borders, at the age of 16. She has since served on numerous board and councils, including the Council of Australian-Arab Relations, ChildFund and Electronic Frontiers Australia. She also served as the Gender Ambassador for the Inter-American Development bank. Yassmin has been awarded numerous awards nationally and internationally for her advocacy, including the 2018 Young Voltaire Award for Free Speech and Queensland Young Australian of the Year in 2015.

Yassmin is currently based in London.

From Norwegian start-up to global disruptor; challenging the dinosaurs

Norway’s future depends on entrepreneurs, and that the entrepreneurs stay in the country. We must do what we can to maintain the brainpower we have here in Norway. And why is unicorns so important for established business?

Espen Høiby is a former airline captain for SAS and the founder and CEO of OSM Aviation. With an MBA from IMD in Switzerland, an Airline Transport Pilot license and more than 40 years of People-passion, entrepreneurship and aviation experience, Espen has brought forth infinite turnaround management, business development, and executive experience from major airlines and aviation training centers under his role as CEO. Other quality aspects include vast industry leadership in the introduction of innovative and disruptive business models and technological developments to the commercial airline industry.

In less than six years, Espen has expanded OSM Aviation’s growth from 0 to 6000 employees, operating in over 19 countries worldwide. As part of this success, OSM Aviation has been recognized as a leading aviation management company, specialized in the employment, training and administration of air crew and technical personnel worldwide.

In 2019, he was awarded the prize “Entrepreneur of the Decade” by Seed Forum Global as a recognition of his long experience, active involvement and effective entrepreneurship in multiple start-ups, most prominently, in building up OSM Aviation as a fast-growing international entrepreneurial success.
With a clear vision of being the world’s leading aviation management company and a firm determination of actively and positively shaping the future of aviation under the sentiment “It’s All About People”, OSM Aviation and its Academy are pioneering the way in the evolution of the training industry and the development, application and professionalization of the commercial drone segment.

People, Profit and Planet. The mindset of the future worker.

How does millenials affect the industry with their thinking and understanding of the world – People, profit and planet? How do they view sharing as a tool to successfully come up with solutions that can help solve the challenges the world faces?

Elin Nørve is the founder of Scandinavia’s largest youth development program: Future Leaders. She is one of Norway’s youngest operational leaders, and runs a company involving more than 50 active working young people and 230 active students in 2 countries.

With a new approach to leadership, corporate operations – yes, for the most part – she does things in her own way and is a front runner for the Millennials generation and the new working life. With a strong “why” in everything she does, focus on people and how they perform optimally, she represents a new form of leadership and company operation that focuses on sustainability, triple bottom line and the use of exponential technology.

The transformation of NOKIA

Nokia faced enormous challenges. How did they work to restructure the organization to come back, and how did it affect the people in the organization? What does he think of new business models and new alliances?

Kåre A. Misund has spent the last six years in Nokia Corporate Strategy and Business Development team where he heads Nokia’s global Strategic Market and Business Intelligence function. Prior to this, he spent time in implementation of Nokia’s restructuring activities and more than twelve years in different technology sales and marketing roles in different regions of the world.

A global company like Nokia, which spans the fast-moving worlds of telecoms and IT, needs not only keen insight to help make the right decisions, but also visionary outlook, to help place the right long-term bets.  Kåre – who has been with Nokia for almost 20 years in marketing, sales and strategy roles – and his close-knit global team specialize in understanding Nokia’s world, both as it is today and as it could be tomorrow to help the company make the right short and long-term decisions.

Data-driven business models

Case study: Data-driven energy – innovation in a changing energy landscape.
The energy industry is undergoing the most significant transformation in its history. Data-driven energy will be a key enabler for this transformation, helping to solve technical, commercial and regulatory problems and providing new business opportunities for forward-looking companies. Data-driven energy is a perfect example for data-driven business models which can be expanded into adjacent and other industries, requiring a new set of technologies that enable a very efficient data access, data governance and data interoperability regime.

Ashwin Kedia is a VP of Strategy and Business Development at Intertrust and is responsible for all aspects of sales and go-to-market strategy for their flagship products. He is a Silicon Valley veteran and brings over 20 years of entrepreneurial experience providing strategic and operating leadership for domestic and international sales and service operations. He has gained diverse experience working for enterprise software, services and consumer focused companies.

Prior to Intertrust he spent five years at Splunk, a big data software company, where he joined pre IPO and helped grow revenues from USD $60Million to over USD $600Million. Before Splunk, Ashwin was a serial entrepreneur and founded two companies – cMango and Vacapedia, both had successful exits through acquisitions. Ashwin started his career working for enterprise software and services companies in various roles. He has worked on multiple continents, which includes working for DHL in the Middle East where he was instrumental in the design and implementation of the world’s first automatic sort system for documents and parcels.

Ashwin holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Mumbai University. Ashwin loves music, sports, travel and spending time with friends and family.

Big corporate – startup collaboration

A conversation with Guro Knapstad, KONGSBERG Digital, about what challenges, opportunities and benefits they experience around the theme of open innovation. Open innovation requires transparency – how does this challenge companies and people?

Audun Abelsnes is the Managing Director of Techstars Energy in partnership with Equinor, Kongsberg and McKinsey. For several years, Audun Abelsnes has been part-responsible for the master-level course “New Venture Creation” (5th year) at BI Norwegian Business School (one of the Top50 business schools in Europe). He also founded and sold one company and he has been instrumental in funding and scaling up a medical diagnostic company. Audun Abelsnes has spent several years in PWC management consulting and holds a Master of Science in International Marketing from BI Norwegian Business School and City University in London.

Big corporate – startup collaboration

A conversation with Audun Abelsnes, Techstars, about what challenges, opportunities and benefits they experience around the theme of open innovation. Open innovation requires transparency – how does this challenge companies and people?

Guro Knapstad is Business Development Manager in Kongsberg Digital and is currently working with development and commercialization of digital twins for industrial assets. She is also Kongsberg’s Corporate Liaison for the Techstars Energy Accelerator.

Knapstad has 13 years of experience in the energy sector, previously holding positions within business development for renewables and oil&gas in Norsk Hydro and Equinor. She holds a Master of Economics from Norwegian School of Economics and Sydney USNW.

In addition to working with innovation in Kongsberg Digital and Techstars, Knapstad is a small-scale investor in tech startups.

Geir Håøy is President and Chief Executive Officer in KONGSBERG ASA. Former President of Kongsberg Maritime with broad international experience from different positions in the company, including head of Kongsberg Maritime’s activities in Singapore and South-Korea. Engineer from Vestfold University College. Mr. Håøy has been with KONGSBERG since 1993.

Kristin Wille von der Lippe is COO in Fieldmade.

Fieldmade is unlocking the potential of 3D printing and digital supply chains. Kristin is a mechanical engineer with a passion for material science and smart manufacturing. Having worked eight years as a research scientist at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, she has ample knowledge of system criticality. Companies and organisations with extreme requirements to uptime could benefit substantially from sourcing high-impact spare parts on-demand.

“Norway and neighbouring countries have the inherent trust required to scale the digital industrial revolution”

Inside-out Innovation

Processes, people and structures to enable large organisations to innovate into new and unimagined markets
The over-arching theme is that innovating from the inside out looks and feels ‘the opposite’ of many elements of how corporations normally innovate… but also different from how entrepreneurs innovate.

Milan Samani is a partner at TIL Ventures. TIL creates corporate incubators and develops new lines of business for large corporations targeting new and unimagined markets. Clients include Barclays, Disney, BMW, Pearson, BlackRock and the World Bank. Milan’s work is published in Harvard Business Review and TIL’s incubators are the subject of teaching cases at Harvard and Said Business School. Milan also guest-lectures at Said Business School and CASS Business School. He lives in London with his wife and 2 young sons.

Partnering to revolutionize road contstruction

Hans Peter Havdal is head of Engineering and Digital Services in Semcon International with operations in Norway, UK, India and Brazil.  Semcon is a product development house supporting companies to develop new products and services, where digital transformation and autonomous operations are high on the agenda. Before joining Semcon, Hans Peter had executive management positions in the global automotive industry for more than 20 years involving marketing, R&D and operations.

Lars Sunde Løseth is Strategic Partnership Responsible for Corporate Banking in DNB, and with over 200 000 corporate customers, DNB is an important contributor to help business succeed both with growth and innovation. Lars has his background as entrepreneur and owner within the newspaper and marketing industry before he worked several years as a project management consultant. In DNB he is working with potential partnership possibilities within the fintech industry and also mentoring starts-ups. The fintech industry is one of quickest growing sectors in the world and the big financial institutions are now looking more into partnering then to compete against fintechs

Cato Esperø is Sales director in Wärtsilä Norway and Head of Service sales in the Nordic and Baltic countries. Earlier in his career Esperø has been a ship broker in one of Norway`s leading ship-broking and finance consultancy company, and while stationed in Dubai and the USA, he headed one of the service company Goltens companies. Cato Esperø has more than 20 years of international business experience from various roles in the marine and offshore industry related to high value capital sales, finance and services.

Jim Stian Olsen has been working with Research and Innovation in Aker Solutions his entire career. First through specialized research within materials technology and later through research strategy and innovation processes. He also holds a position as Adjunct Associate Professor at NTNU in Norway.

John Emil Halden is Acting Manager at Yeti Snow Technology AS.