Futures Forums

This year's Futures Forum was the kick-off for the wider discussion of Estonia's mid-term future. The purpose of the debate is to reach a shared vision about the possible sources of economic growth for Estonia in the rapidly-changing world.

The day was opened by the President of the Republic of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves, who has pointed out that the world economy confronts us with a number of serious questions in need of addressing over the next decade. He has challenged us to think about what kind of economy do we want to create by 2018 - the year we celebrate our country's hundredth birthday.

As a basis for the discussion we have analysed the Estonian economy, brought together people from different walks of life and gathered relevant international experience as well as knowledge from the other successful countries. Through interviews and workshops we have gained a sense of how creative and forward-thinking Estonians envisage the future. In the forum we shared with participants the resulting narratives of alternate futures of the Estonian economic development and present the initial set of the vision elements.

The creative thinking and open discussion was inspired by presentations from the world's leading thinkers and strategists:

Eamonn Kelly, CEO emeritus of the Global Business Network - the world‘s largest consultancy integrating scenarios and strategy - and author of a number of books about the future, helped to interpret the next decade's most important global trends into the Estonian context.

President of the Republic of estonia at the Futures Forum on May 6, 2010

Mikko Kosonen, considered to be Nokia's most successful business strategist of all times, and the President of the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra for the last few years, opened for us Finland's challenges, opportunities and choices.

The alternate futures for the Estonian economy and their implications were commented by the globally renowned scenarios guru Peter Schwartz by video.

All of the above was to create an inspiring environment for creative discussion and novel thoughts for almost two hundred of Estonia's visionary thinkers and opinion leaders. The most important part of the Futures Forum will be building of a shared vision about the future of the Estonian economy.

Have a look at the photo gallery!

Building a vision at the Futures Forum (from the left) Erik Terk, Ain Aaviksoo, Merle Krigul, Lauri Lahi and Olav Osolin. (Photo by Marko Rillo)

 Materials of the Futures Forum 3

• Speech of the President of Republic at the Forum
  

• Eamonn Kelly's slides (PDF, 51 KB)
• Mikko Kosonen's slides (PDF, 1 MB)

Videocasts:

• Recordings on full of the speeches by: President of Estonia Mr Toomas Hendrik Ilves (in Estonian), Eamonn Kelly and Mikko Kosonen
• Peter Schwartz's comments on the scenarios
• Retrospectove at the emotions of the Forum in this short video clip