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Agenda

Nordic Innovation Summit 2024

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Dates:

May 13-14, 2024

Location:

Seattle, WA

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⬅ Back to Nordic Innovation Summit 2024

2024 Nordic Innovation Summit Agenda

The Nordic Innovation Summit brings together thought leaders in innovation and technology to exchange ideas, discuss issues, and explore opportunities of mutual concern; the goal is to accelerate innovation and jump-start economic and cultural exchange. The Summit draws high-level presenters and participants that include C-suite business leaders, innovators, tech investors, academics, NGO leaders, and policymakers from all five Nordic nations and the United States.

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Agenda

Want to learn more about this year's speakers?

Speaker bios

Monday, May 13: Opening Program and Reception


  • View on YouTube

    Speaker

    • Martine Kildeby, Director, Global Networks and Partnerships, BLOXHUB

    Description

    More US cities face significant challenges and a need for transformation due to the impact from the Covid pandemic, climate change and new urban trends. City leaders are increasingly motivated to adapt to future needs and realize the need for a new approach to gaining knowledge and develop cross-disciplinary solutions. To accelerate impact more cities in the State of Washington have therefore partnered with BLOXHUB, the Nordic Hub for Sustainable Urbanization based in Copenhagen to engage leading expertise from their ecosystem of 400 expert organizations to co-create solutions to achieve livable and future-proof cities. In this keynote, you will learn about how US cities can benefit from Nordic expertise and how a Nordic-US collaboration holds the potential to shape a livable urban future.


  • Speakers

    • Enlai Hooi, Head of Innovation, Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects
    • Martine Kildeby, Director, Global Networks and Partnerships, BLOXHUB
    • Adam Weinstein, Director, Planning & Building Development, City of Kirkland

    Moderator

    • Jayson Antonoff, Co-founder, i-SUSTAIN

    Description

    A larger delegation of Nordic experts is visiting selected cities in the State of Washington these days, and they are not here for sightseeing! For the last months, city leaders and the team at BLOXHUB – the Nordic Hub for Sustainable Urbanization – have been preparing a deep collaboration process with the interaction of local stakeholders and urban experts to identify new solutions and approaches to developing our city’s downtowns. In this panel, you’ll meet representatives from both ecosystems and explore why we can’t find the solutions we need alone and why we need to look beyond our city and even country borders to create future-proof urban development.


  • Speaker

    • Tony Pan, Co-founder & CEO, Modern Hydrogen

  • Speakers

    • Chris Green, Assistant Director, Office of Economic Development and Competitiveness, Washington Department of Commerce
    • Sveinung Odegard, Senior VP Business Development Fuel Cell Technologies, Corvus Energy
    • Tony Pan, Founder & CEO, Modern Hydrogen

    Moderator

    • Lisa Stiffler, News Reporter, GeekWire
  •   

  •     


  • Featuring

    • Governor Jay Inslee, State of Washington
    • Sara Modig, State Secretary to Minister for Energy, Business and Industry, Ebba Busch, The Government of Sweden

    Description

    A new formal agreement between Sweden and the State of Washington will be signed at the Summit, bringing green transition expertise and technology to the state. 

    Includes Q&A



  • Speakers

    • His Excellency Mikko Hautala, Ambassador of Finland to the U.S.
    • Governor Jay Inslee, State of Washington
    • Sara Modig, State Secretary to Minister for Energy, Business and Industry, Ebba Busch
    • His Excellency Jesper Møller Sørensen, Ambassador of Denmark to the U.S.

    Moderator

    • Marko Liias, Senator, Washington State Legislature

    Description

    Leaders from Washington State and the Nordics convene to discuss innovation and collaboration between two of the world’s most inventive regions.

5:45 - 7pm
  • Join us for the opening reception on Fisherman's Sun Terrace at the National Nordic Museum

Tuesday, May 14: Main Summit Day

7:30am
  •  

9:00am

  • Speaker

    • Eric Nelson, Executive Director/CEO, National Nordic Museum
  •   
    Speaker

    • Pablos Holman, Hacker, Inventor & Technology Futurist, Deep Future
  • Speaker

    • Sara Modig, State Secretary to Minister for Energy, Business and Industry, Ebba Busch, The Government of Sweden
  • Speaker

    • Chris Levesque, CEO, TerraPower

    Description

    The speed of change in the global energy mix is occurring at a historically rapid pace. TerraPower President and CEO Chris Levesque will discuss how the growing need for electricity and the urgency to address climate change have increased the need for advanced nuclear technologies to be part of the suite of solutions to meet the energy needs of the future. TerraPower’s Natrium™ reactor and energy storage system will function completely differently on the energy grid from the generating assets deployed today; providing both clean, baseload power and gigawatt-scale energy storage to support the energy transition.


  • Speakers

    • Chris Levesque, CEO, TerraPower
    • Dr. Paolo Venneri, CEO USNC-Tech, PhD, Nuclear and Quantum Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

    Moderator

    • Brian Young, Governor’s Clean Tech Sector Lead, Department of Commerce, State of Washington


    Includes Q&A


  • Speaker

    • His Excellency, Mikko Hautala, Ambassador of Finland


    • Speaker

      • Reuven Carlyle, Executive Vice President, CSO and Co-Founder of Earth Finance

    • Speaker

      • Peter Zonneveld, President, Neste US
    10:25am
    •  

    10:40am
    • Moderator

      • Jim Brisimitzis, Founder & General Partner, 5G Open Innovation Lab

      Speakers

      • Hugh Gallagher, Director of IT Services, North America, Carrix Inc
      • Harri Holma, Fellow, Nokia Technology Office
      • Mikko Jarva, Head of Portfolio & Architecture, Network Monetization Platform, Nokia
      • David Letterman, Head of Business Development, North America, Nokia Enterprise Solutions, Nokia Digital Automation

        Description

        Private Wireless Networks are driving transformations across various business verticals, fueled by programmable networks with Cloud- and 5G-technologies. In this session, we explore the leading use cases and business priorities through Maritime-industry, and how the corresponding solutions address these needs also more widely across Enterprises in general. We also take a look into the various roles that both established and new ecosystem partners play in enabling these new capabilities with Enterprises.

        Includes Q&A


      • Speaker

        • Mårten Mickos, CEO, HackerOne

        Description

        Preparedness determines whether you win or lose with your AI deployment. This talk is about reputation risk, AI bias, safety, and security. Hear strategies from the top AI players worldwide and why you should proactively address risk head-on.


      • Speakers

        • Rob Eleveld, Founder, The Transparency Coalition 
        • Mary Snapp, Vice President, Strategic AI Initiatives, Microsoft
        • Dr. Joseph Williams, Information and Communications Technology Sector Lead, Washington State Department of Commerce
        Moderator
        • Mårten Mickos,CEO, HackerOne

        Description

        Preparedness determines whether you win or lose with your AI deployment. This talk is about reputation risk, AI bias, safety, and security. Hear strategies from the top AI players worldwide and why you should proactively address risk head-on.

        Includes Q&A



      • Speaker

        • Molly Wright Steenson, President & CEO, American Swedish Institute

      • Speakers

        • Alex Algard, Founder & CEO, Hiya Inc.
      12:50pm
      •  

      1:25pm

      • Speaker

        • Laura Watson, Director, Washington State Department of Ecology

      • Speaker

        • Jesper Møller Sørensen, Ambassador of Denmark to the U.S.

      • Speakers

        • Chris Cassidy, National Renewable Energy Advisor, US Dept. of Agriculture
        • Mike Chapman, House Representative, Washington State Legislature

      • Speakers

        • Randy Hayden, Executive Director, Port of Pasco
        • Niels Nielsen, Senior Business Consultant, GreenLab Skive
        • Ted Sprague, President, Cowlitz Economic Development Council

        Moderator

        • Rhys Roth, Executive Director, Center for Sustainable Infrastructure

        Description

        An extensive number of Washington State legislators have gone to Denmark to look at industrial symbiosis, and there is a strong movement in the state to establish similar systems to contribute to decarbonizing the industry, transportation, and agriculture sectors. Since 2020 a state-wide bipartisan Industrial Symbiosis Program has been in place and a report was done by Washington State University, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Center for Sustainable Infrastructure in 2023 on a pathway to accelerate the development of industrial symbiosis projects in Washington State. Panelists will discuss the concrete plans that are in place to establish two specific industrial symbiosis projects in Pasco and Longview, in the Southern and Eastern parts of Washington State, modeled after the industrial energy parks developed by GreenLab in Skive and Kalundborg Symbiosis in Denmark. The panel debate will further explore the possibilities of Washington State becoming a hub for building up the know-how and expertise needed to guide and facilitate future innovative industrial symbiosis projects in the region.


      • Moderator

        • François Baneyx, Vice Provost for Innovation, Director of CoMotion & Matthaei Prof. of Chemical Engineering at University of Washington

        Speakers

        • Felix Grunewald, Senior Director Factory Design & Blueprint, Northvolt
        • Tor-Gunnar Hovig, Senior Vice President Sales, Americas, Corvus Energy USA
        • Birger Steen, CEO & Director of the Board, FREYR Battery

        Description

        Three leading Nordic battery manufacturers who have expanded operations to North America will provide different perspectives and insights on the challenges and opportunities in the battery manufacturing field.

        Includes Q&A


      • Speaker

        • Jonas Jonsson, President, Stellar Holdings

      • Speaker

        • Karin Ekdahl Wästberg, Director of Innovation, City of Stockholm

      • Speaker

        • Markus Paulsson, Energy Strategist, City of Lund and Project Manager, CoAction Lund

      • Speakers

        • Jessyn Farrell, Director, Office of Sustainability & Environment, City of Seattle
        • Markus Paulsson, Energy Strategist, City of Lund and Project Manager, CoAction Lund
        • Karin Ekdahl Wästberg, Director of Innovation, City of Stockholm

        Moderator

        • Linda Andrén, Executive Director Sweden-U.S. Green Transition Initiative

        Description

        Inspired by NASA’s mission-to-the-moon program, Sweden launched a national innovation program a decade ago with the bold ambition to make the biggest cities in the country climate neutral by 2030, twenty years ahead of the rest of the European Union.

        Since its inception, the program has aimed for something more than zero emissions. It has been using a mission-oriented approach to unite people of all levels of society towards a common audacious mission of climate-neutral cities by 2030, with a good life for all within the planetary boundaries. The approach has proven very successful, which is why a lot of cities around the world set their eyes on what’s happening in Sweden.

        Viable Cities, as the program is called, was indeed the first program of its kind in the world and has inspired the European Union to launch a mission of its own: making the 112 cities on the continent climate-neutral by 2030 too.

        In this event, you will be able to listen to US and Swedish perspectives on mission-oriented policy innovation to arrive in climate-neutral cities by 2030. Different stakeholder groups will be present and share insights on mission-oriented collaboration for climate-neutral cities.

        Includes Q&A

      3:35pm
      •  

      4:05pm

      • Speakers

        • Jordan Haverly, Federal Public Affairs Manager, Neste
        • Stephanie Meyn, Climate Program Manager, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport

        Moderator

        • Joe Nguyễn, Senator, Washington State Legislature

        Includes Q&A


      • Speaker

        • Inger Gustafsson, Head of Vinnova, Silicon Valley Office

      • Moderator

        • Inger Gustafsson, Head of Vinnova, Silicon Valley Office

        Speakers

        • Joseph Iannelli, Professor in the School of Engineering & Applied Sciences and Associate Dean for International Programs, Voiland College of Engineering & Architecture
        • Dr. Åsa Wallin, Director, Future Precision HealthSweden
        • Marcus Rönngren Liu, Senior Manager and Business Developer, Sweden-U.S. Green Transition

        Description

        This session will present two student academia/industry exchange programs from Washington State University, Pullman campus, and Linköping University with industry partners from Boeing and Saab

        Includes Q&A


      • Speaker

        • Pablos Holman, Hacker, Inventor & Technology Futurist, Deep Future
      5:10 - 7pm
      •