Theme: Shape tomorrow

Join us for 1,5 days of pure magic and ideas worth spreading.

Arendal Kulturhus
Arendal
Arendal, Aust-Agder, 4801
Norway

Aase Helene Fidje Ødegaard

Specialist nurse

During a period of 2 years Aase Helene Fidje Ødegaard made 25 national costumes out of garbage – mainly from her own household. She wanted to focus on the joy of recycling of rubbish. Most of us have to look closely before we realise that the costumes as a fact are made of chocolate paper, plastic bags, disposable lens boxes, CD-disc’s and some Christmas decoration! By choosing national costumes as a way of expression – what many Norwegians regard as sacred – Aase wanted to touch our innermost and challenge our attitude to things that we today call garbage.

Angela Luna

CEO and founder of ADIFF

Angela Luna is the founder & CEO of ADIFF, a humanitarian outerwear startup that utilizes the fashion industry to provide aid for global displacement. Coming from a background in design, she saw the massive unrealized potential of the fashion industry, and sought to create change. She is a member of the Forbes 30 Under 30 Class of 2017, and has been hailed as an award-winning solution-based designer. She is committed to using design for good, creating products and services that better the world.

Anne Lise Kjaer

Futurist

Anne Lise Kjaer is a leading global futurist, author, entrepreneur and Copenhagen Goodwill Ambassador. She specialises in detecting and analysing socio-economic and cultural drivers. Her design thinking background, and deep insight into the Nordic Model is instrumental to spot influential trends and map their impact on tomorrow’s people, organisations and society. Her career began in Denmark prior to establishing Kjaer Global in 1988 – an ideas and trend management consultancy. She lived and worked in Paris and Hamburg before settling in London. In 2014 she distilled more than two decades of cutting-edge research into a book: The Trend Management Toolkit – A Practical Guide to the Future. It introduces Kjaer’s unique 4P business model of People, Planet, Purpose and Profit – while exploring how trend mapping can cultivate innovation culture. Kjaer has delivered talks to over 100,000 people – presenting at Adam Smith Institute, Cambridge University, European Commission, Esade, London S

Æli Manouchehri

IT Engineer

Æli Manouchehri is an IT Engineer, with a passion for technology and future use of tech to help improve quality of living for all. HE was born in Tehran (Iran), but his entire family fled to Norway during the revolution when he was just 5 years old. He got his degree in IT from University of Agder, and he has worked in the petroleum industry as an IT Engineer on-site in China, Australia and Egypt. Æli started his own company when the oil crisis hit Norway, and is currently the owner of his own Tech company, DigiMed1 as. His company, DigiMed1 is currently working on an app to track, recognize and predict pain periods in weather triggered illnesses.

Dave Troy

Entrepreneur

Dave Troy is a serial entrepreneur and community activist in Baltimore, Maryland. He is CEO and product architect at 410 Labs, maker of the popular e-mail management tool Mailstrom.co. He has been acknowledged by the founding team at Twitter as the first developer to utilize the Twitter API, with his project “Twittervision,” which was featured in the 2008 MoMA exhibition “Design and the Elastic Mind.” His crowdsourced project Peoplemaps.org uses social network data to map cities. He is also organizer of TEDxMidAtlantic and is passionate about data, cities, and entrepreneurship. Read his post, "The Math Behind Peoplemaps."

Espen Wallin

Photographer and film maker

More coming soon

Guliana Galati

Post-doc in Physics at Naples University Federico II

Giuliana Galati is involved in an underground physics experiment to hunt ghostly particles called neutrinos, which have been making scientists crazy since 1930. According to her, studying the elusive neutrinos is worth not only from the physics point of view, but also because they can teach us valuable life lessons. After graduating in Nuclear, Subnuclear and Astroparticle Physics from Bari University Aldo Moro, Giuliana Galati completed her PhD at Naples University Federico II in 2017, working in the OPERA experiment. Since 2009 she is involved in science communication. In 2011 she co-founded a science podcast and blog (www.scientificast.it) aimed at conveying complex science topics in a way accessible to all. This project became a no-profit association with the purpose of diffusing science and nowadays the podcast is one of the most listened to.

Guro Heggholmen

Guro (11) has a special interest in how girls and boys are shaped by their surroundings. She has a sharp eye for details. In her opinion these details shape us, and sometimes they narrow down our worldview into stereotypical truths about girls and boys. Her goal is to make a change. No task is too small or too big for Guro, despite her young age. Her engagement and enthusiasm in addressing this issue, has made others join her in her first campaign: #notforshow. (#ikketilpynt)

Håkon Moslet

Editor in Chief, Nrk

Håkon is one of the bright brains behind one of Norways biggest TV success ever – SKAM. He will give us a look behind the scenes of the show that has set a new standard for modern storytelling. Håkon was a music journalist for years, before he started working in NRK P3 in 2002, where he is now the Editor in Chief for TV.

Jokke Sommer

Jokke Sommer is a true thrillseeker mostly known for airy flights and fearless lifestyle. Looking back, he has always been fascinated by everything that could fly and dreamed one day to fly himself. When he matured, his childhood dream faded and he started a career in Motocross. This sport became his biggest passion and an important part of his youth. After several years of riding, he started to Freestyle and built his own Freestyle Motocross park where he and his friends met to ride and fly. At the age of 21 he and his close friend Jørgen decided, to start skydiving and they completed an Acellerated Free Fall skydiving course. He sold his dirt bikes and became a licensed skydiver. To gain the required experience he travelled to the United States and completed 250 jumps in two months. After watching dozens of Wingsuit flying videos, he had no doubt, this was what he also wanted to do! His non-jumping spare time was spent researching BASE Jumping. After returning to Norway he signed up for a BASE jumping course and travelled to Kjerag to make his first jump. Starting to BASE jump changed his life and his determination made him an expert athlete in the sport. Since then he has had a solid career within Wingsuit Flights and BASE Jumping. In Norway Jokke became really publicly known through the TV serie Oppdrag Sognefjorden in 2010/11. This again led to his first contract with Red Bull and later he has made 5 TV shows, as well as many nerve wrecking stunts around the world. With fear as a motivation for pushing limits, his childhood flying dreams has in the later years extended further and brought him into Speed flying, Paragliding and Big Wave Surfing also

Julien S. Bourrelle

CEO of Mondå

We all see the world through cultural glasses, by changing glasses you can change the way you perceive the behaviours of others. Julien S. Bourrelle believes that we have the opportunity to increase the competitiveness of businesses and to create a better functioning multicultural society by helping people to communicate better across culture. Julien is a Canadian rocket scientist who lived within various cultures these last 15 years. It has shaped his perception and expectations. His “Mondå” project provides tools to communicate better across culture, helping us to be more aware of how our behaviours can be interpreted differently than intended by people of other cultures. Julien is a bestselling author and has a double MSc. in Astrodynamics. He dropped out of his doctoral studies after the success of Mondå and his books. He has lived in Norway since 2009.

Karen Dolva

CEO and co-founder of No Isolation

Karen Dolva is the CEO and co-founder of No Isolation. Her background is in UX/interaction design and informatics and she has previously co-founded the consultancy company UX Lab. With her co-founders, Marius Aabel and Matias Doyle, she has taken No Isolation to 36 employees, build AV1 for children with long-term illness, expanded sales 5 countries and started development of a senior product in less than two years. No Isolation’s goal is to help as many people as possible out of social isolation and loneliness by making technology available for those who can not just use generic solutions to stay connected.

Lene Marie Fossen

Photographer

Lene Marie Fossen decided to stop time 20 years ago. She was then 10 years old, and stopped eating. Her personal story is unfortunately relevant and concerns many. Today Lene Marie uses photography as her way out of the disease. She is self-taught – and has a unique talent. Lene Marie creates soulful portraits, including victims of the refugee crisis on the island of Chios in Greece. She is best known for her beautiful and revealing self-portraits.

Miguel Valenzuela

Miguel Valenzuela is a Mexican born American who moved to Norway in 2010 and created a ’Pancake Machine out of LEGO’ for his daughters. He is an Engineering graduate of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and teaches Making in Norway. As an artist & inventor who struggled with learning throughout his life, he travels the world with his family telling the story of PancakeBot and shares his tools for learning & redefining success in the context of Pancakes & LEGO in the hopes that you can realize the only box that exists is in your mind.

Mike Troxel

CEO and Lead Dreamer of Makerspace Norway

Mike is born and raised in Denver, Colorado but moved to Chicago as a young man. There he met and married a lovely Norwegian lady and now has 4 children. He has worked for over 25 years with culture, social and entrepreneurial related projects and startups. From music festivals, to poverty and justice issues to building skate parks and parkour halls and makerspaces. His passion is working with people, and to be part of things that make a difference.

Morten Krogvold

Photographer

Morten Krogvold is a Norwegian photographer and lecturer, especially known for his portrait of artists, writers, politicians, and other celebrities. He will join speaker Lene Marie Fossen on stage, in conversation about photography and life.

Mozhgan Tavakolifard

Chief Data and Analytic Officer

Tavakolifard holds a PhD in Machine Learning and she started her career as Data Scientist. Mozhgan started her first company, DharmicData, in 2015. The company, consisting of 12 word-class employees, became one of the first and biggest Nordic Data Centres of Excellence. The main product of the company was a personalisation platform to collect data from users’ behaviour and target marketing towards them based on the learnt behaviour. In 2017, Mozhgan exited DharmicData with the ambition to work on a new idea. Her second company, called IPower.Me, aims to give the power and control of personal data back to individuals and enable a personal data economy.

Nancy Westerberg

Maker

Nancy Westerberg used to be an occupational therapist. Some 20 years ago she embarked on a new and exciting chapter in her life. She was then 60 years old, retired and able to devote her time, at least, to her “first love” – being creative working with all kinds of materials. Some quite ordinary materials, such as textiles, plastic, yarn and paper, some bought, some found. The process was and still is making thoughts, memories, experiences into objects. Objects such as full size children’s clothing, books and documents, toys and tools. All made from many types and colours of paper. Some inscribed with words, quotes and stories. Nancy Westerberg, sees in her personal life, gathering, caring for and honouring her memories as an important process. A process which enriches and enables mastering today and helps shape tomorrow.

Oskar Blakstad

Clinical Psychologist

Oskar Blakstad is a clinical psychologist and tech enthusiast from Norway. He focuses on implementing internet technologies with health care units. Blakstad founded Explorable.com, a website about science for students, which has been used by more than 50 million users. Blakstad is currently works on creating automated online treatment for individuals with mental health problems, to improve accessibility and scalability of the health care system.

Rachel Thomas

Doctor

Dr. Rachel Thomas is a medical doctor and healthcare innovator, with a special interest in mental health. After full recovery from an accident that broke her back and neck, she is focusing on empowering people to increase their wellness – in mental and physical health – through technology. She studied Medicine and Surgery at Oxford University, and is currently completing a Masters Degree in the Neuroscience and Psychology of Mental Health at Kings College, London. She completed Biomedical Engineering (Hons 1) and Science degrees at Berkeley and Sydney University. Rachel has written two medical textbooks – Practical Medical Procedures at a Glance, and Medical School at a Glance (Wiley-Blackwell), multiple articles in the academic and the popular press, and is the British Medical Association’s Young Author of the Year, 2016.

Sartaj Singh Anand

Founder, Egomonk

Sartaj Anand from Calcutta, India, is a parallel entrepreneur with an unreasonable dream to positively impact 1 billion human lives within his lifetime. He currently runs a boutique consulting firm — egomonk, focused on innovation and strategy. Sartaj has travelled, worked and co-created in more than 40 countries so far.

Sedin Zunik

Street artist

Sedin Zunic was born in Bosnia and has been in love with the art of drawing his whole life. He creates his things, rather than buy them and his art has become a natural part of who he is. Sedin came to Norway in 1993 and got introduced to the urban subculture in Kristiansand filled with street art. He is the founder of KRS Gadekunst foundation, CoolArt.no and the leader of Kristiansand’s “Gadekunstfestivalen” (Street Art festival).

Svein Wilhelmsen

Founder of Basecamp Explorer

Svein Wilhelmsen founded Basecamp Explorer & Basecamp Foundation i 1998. The Basecamp Group has since worked to preserve one of the world’s most important ecosystem for our larger mammals; the world famous Masai Mara wildlife area in Kenya. The Mara ecosystem is also vital for the preservation of Serengeti, Tanzania – and vice versa. The conservation model is built on close partnership and collaboration with the local Maasai community. The Basecamp Group was instrumental in establishing “Mara Naboisho Conservancy”, last year named the best managed wildlife conservancy in Africa by Responsible Travel Africa. Due to population growth and poverty, overgrazing, climate change and poaching, new role models that can be scaled and replicated are critical, in times with large reduction in African wildlife. Basecamp Explorer runs three internationally recognized safari camps under ‘it’s responsible tourism concept’, and five lodges in the arctic archipelago of Spitsbergen. Several Maasai

Svend Heier

CEO and CTO of STABLE

He first gained technical experience through disassembling alarm clocks and pens, purely disassembling, never reassembling. The only thing that still worked when he was done, were loose gears, now being used as spinning tops. He was good with numbers, bad with reading and singing. He finally became a good student after he finished his masters in engineering degree from NTH in 1974, and got good at his job. As a recent graduate he was very insecure in his own abilities, had little faith that he could perform anything worthwhile. His only career ambition was to keep an empty inbox and doing as told. After a while he realised that his “engineer mind” had value, especially in combination with other values, such as innovative, listening to others, a business mind, networking, sales, communication, wholesome thinking, and creativeness. He is a technological optimist, loves making stuff work and showing how and why stuff works. He has along with others started several successful businesses an

Thomas Idem

ADHD Coach

Thomas Idem, also known as the ADHD coach (ADHDCoachen), has extensive experience from fields like journalism, tourism and the event industry. He himself has the diagnosis ADHD and thinks it suits him well. Thomas puts prejudices and myths about ADHD to question, and gives us an insight and how we can focus on the positive characteristics of the diagnosis.

Thomas F. Anglero

Director of Innovation, IBM Norway

Thomas F. Anglero is the Director of Innovation for IBM Norway responsible for IBM Watson and innovation. Thomas is the creator of the IBM Watson Innovation Lab at the Oslo Cancer Cluster which is the Nordic HQ of IBM Watson for all the Nordic countries, covering all industries. Thomas is one of the most exciting and sought after public speakers in the Nordic countries. He is an expert in innovation, cultural diversity, and artificial intelligence’s effect on people, society and businesses. In the first-half of 2017, Thomas key-noted at over 50+ conferences to over 20,000+ people throughout Europe and consulted to executive leader groups and government officials throughout Europe. Prior to IBM, Thomas was the Director of Innovation for the Norwegian Tax Authorities. Thomas has over 25 years of global IT and telecom executive experience including founding several startups in the US, Norway and Serbia. Thomas is a dedicated social entrepreneur, holding courses and lectures.

Venke Knutson

Songwriter and founder of Poprommet

Venke Knutson is a songwriter, a teacher and the founder of Poprommet.no, a fast growing music school in Norway. She is also the head behind the philosophy «Mappeløs», witch encourages everyone to be met with the same ecpectations no matter where they come from; We will not let your past decide what you can do or be in the future. Venke is seen as a social entrepreneur because of her engagement to create new jobs, seek better social skills and more mastery to our society. «You matter» are two of her favorite words, and she likes to encourage people to be the best they can be. Her motto goes as far as «music will save the world» and she is as ambitious as she sounds.