Helsinki hosts FinnSight on Sept 19

The national foresight forum FinnSight will bring together leading experts and decision-makers to a form at Paasitorni in Helsinki on September 19 to discuss ways of Finland and Finnish work to succeed in future, too.

Minister of Family Affairs and Social Services Annika Saarikko will inaugurate the forum where Nobel Laureate and MIT Professor Bengt Holmström will present the keynote, said a government press release.

The transformation of work means a profound technological, economic and societal change that continues across generations.

At the heart of this transformation are automation, robotics, artificial intelligence, creative destruction, and the evolving sharing and platform economy. The transformation will have far-reaching consequences that will challenge the whole welfare society as we know it. What may hurt the most is that the traditional link between economic growth and work may be broken, while technologies are also expected to boost economic growth.

At the FinnSight forum a number of experts in the work, livelihoods and business of the future and decision-makers will discuss potential solutions to the transformation of work. The approach to be adopted is practical, concrete and future-oriented.

Sanoma Chairman Pekka Ala-Pietilä, Finnish National Agency for Education Director-General Olli-Pekka Heinonen, Social Insurance Institution of Finland (Kela) Community Relations Director Olli Kangas, Foresight Director Paula Laine, a representative of the Insight and Strategy at the Finnish Innovation Fund (Sitra), State Secretary at the Prime Ministers’ Office Paula Lehtomäki, and Professor Timo Seppälä from the Research Institute of the Finnish Economy (Etla) and the University of Aalto, among others, will participate in the forum as discussants.