Reflections from the first Global Shapers Nordic Summit

In the most beautiful settings one can think of, 200 people gathered at Hanaholmen Nordic Cultural Center in Helsinki two weeks ago for the first Nordic Summit of the WEF Global Shapers Community. Emil, one of the members of our Hub, has nodded down some of his reflections from the summit in this post.

Five of the six Copenhagen Shapers at the summit. From left: Chenai Muchena, Line Kolling, Emil Bender Lassen, Hannibal Herforth and Dina Lingås.

The purpose of gathering the Nordic Global Shapers hubs
With the stated aim of empowering young people to play an active role in shaping local, regional and global agendas, the Community was founded in 2012. Our hub was founded two years later and 2018 became the first year of a Nordic Summit. We have long worked for increased collaboration between the Nordic hubs. Because we share the same values and often work for the same aims in the projects. The Nordic countries are uniquely positioned to act as role-models in the global world within areas such as climate and environment, ethical work, education and many others; and with the mandate of WEF on our CVs, we, as Shapers, have pledged to promote those values. The Nordic Summit was an ideal platform to do so.

The summit was centred around three main themes, which were introduced in the following way:

1. Innovation & Prosperity: Nordics have enjoyed great prosperity during the last decades. However, the world is changing at an accelerating pace and the global challenges we face today are more complex than ever. Trying to solve these challenges through collaboration and as a single innovation area could give the Nordics a competitive advantage over other regions. To prepare for these challenges, we also need to rethink the education system and emphasize lifelong learning. Teaching skills such as emotional intelligence and creativity will separate us from machines.

2. Sustainability Crisis: Most of our systems are broken, questionably incentivised, supported by heavy bureaucracy and designed for times bygone. To change this a sustainability-oriented mindset is not enough as we are facing the challenges of climate change, mass consumption and loss of biodiversity. Shifting incentives for business towards a circular economy will enable a systemic change that is actually regenerative. Our food system, in all of its stages is one of the biggest waster and polluter, but offers actually many solutions to the sustainability crisis. Nordics are not the biggest polluters globally but have the opportunity to showcase the best solutions.

3. Society & Wellbeing: Nordic countries consistently top the list of best places to live and work. Universal healthcare, free education and great social equality provide a solid foundation to a happy society. But issues such as marginalisation, mental illness and lifestyle diseases are causing a tremendous strain on our systems and we need new ways of tackling them. A society that provides equal opportunities and promotes holistic wellbeing is best equipped to respond and adapt to future challenges.

Alexander Stubb, former PM of Finland

Contrary to the classic conference, the program at the Nordic Summit was highly interactive with both engaging round-tables after each of the speaker sessions and dedicated “Impact Labs” at the end of the day, with great opportunities to discuss the topics and draw on the wealth of background and experiences present at the Summit.

Alongside the interactive elements, were an amazing speaker line-up with keynotes including: former Finnish prime-minister, Alexander Stubb, now one of the leading candidates for the presidentship of the European Commission; heavy-weights from Microsoft, EYQ (The Think-Tank of Ernest & Young) and Fazer; entrepreneurs in the mental-health and education space; and the super-cool head-chef and found of Restaurant Nolla, the world’s first dedicated zero-waste restaurant.

I got the opportunity to facilitate one of the Impact Labs on the theme of “Sustainability Crises”. With me, I had fellow Copenhagen Shaper Hannibal Herforth and in the crowd of participants were a good mix of young professionals and industry-heavy weights, including two senior researchers in food and packaging waste as well as the global CEO of EYQ. Surprising to see how concrete such crowd could get within the 1-hour time-constraint when they were trying to formulate ideas with the potential to tackle some of the global issues within sustainability that was on the agenda. The key take-away for me was that most of the ideas was around implementation: why is it that so many solutions to climate problems exist already, but are not used? An interesting discussion I will remember for a long time that had elements ranging from behavioural economics to global trade politics.

All in all, an amazing weekend organised to perfection by the cool guys of the Helsinki hub. Rumour says that Stockholm will be the hosts of the next summit — after that, maybe we in Copenhagen can step up? What I left with, when rushing to the plane directly from the sauna-trip on Sunday, was great project-ideas for our work this fall, a wonderful absence of stress, and a bunch of new connections — and friends!

By Emil Bender Lassen. Emil has been part of the Copenhagen Hub a little over a year. He’s studying Philosophy, Politics and Economics at King’s College London & NUS and is the CEO of the non-profit education startup Project Access.

Group shot of all the Shapers participating :)