BRIGHT 2007 conference in Stockholm

20th - 23rd Sept. Stockholm
The beginning of the conference on Thursday 20th September at the beautiful Karolinska Institutet campus in the evening saw the opening speech given by Michael Treschow, Board Chairman of Ericsson and non-executive chairman of Unilever. To have the opening speech given by such a high profile businessman and one awarded so many honours by countries across Europe for strengthening relations between Sweden and those countries heralded something of a prestigious air about the room. Furthermore, for him to tell us that the “future rests on our shoulders”, I knew the weekend ahead would be a challenging one, possibly a notion felt by the other 140-odd students from across Europe sitting in the room.
This was a gradual step into the style of the conference with our first practice world café discussions, a relatively relaxed format of discussion where we would every so often rearrange and move around tables to spread our discussions with others. Discussions were open, with everyone having their input and an atmosphere of listening to rather than arguing points emerged. The practice was short and everyone headed back to the hostel, save for myself given that I was staying with a friend living in Stockholm. From what I saw of the hostel, it was spacious, clean, well-maintained and well-equipped, with internet and TV access through a computer in the rooms.
The following day saw an early start and the smell of fresh coffee on demand as we walked into the room was a sense to behold. The prospect of a tight schedule throughout the day with four café discussion periods and four presentations by guest speakers left little time for messing around. We would hear that day from Anders Gustavsson, project manager of i3 Innovus, Professor Tore Larsson, founder of the Institute for Human Safety & Accident Research (IPSO), Lena Ek, Member of the European Parliament, and Gunilla Nordenram, an associate professor at the Karolinska Institutet specialising in raising the awareness of dental care of the elderly. Though each of the speakers concentrated in their own field of expertise, comparisons could readily be drawn between the content of the presentations, allowing for a healthy generation of ideas in the discussions. By the end of the first full day however, everyone was exasperated and discussions had reached the point of reiteration, due largely to the compactness of material and length of the day. Time for food and drink! The evening’s event saw us greeted aboard the SS Stockholm for a four-hour tour around Stockholm and a rather delightful three-course meal of an extremely high quality. It was a great reward for a hard day’s work!
The following day saw us greeted by Carl-Johan Sundberg, a character who to say the least was inspirational. A professor at the Karolinska Institutet, he began with a rather informal discussion around the large hall, commandeering the conversation and drawing out key points. The day’s proceedings had been reorganised to facilitate a less tired day than before, and the reorganisation was indeed successful. Given the timespan that the committee had to reorganise the format of discussion (i.e. night before to morning after), the success with which this was done was truly brilliant. Our first presentation of the day was given by Adjiedj Bakas, a trend and development analyst. Though usually statistics is for me a rather dull subject, the vivacity and flair with which Bakas gave his presentation was encapsulating, and provided thought creation in areas I had not before considered. Following this directly was what came to be termed the ‘Volvo lecture’. Given by Tatiana Butovitsch Temm, founder of Temm communications. Though the presentation seemed like an opportunity for Volvo, a sponsor of the event to give an hour long plug of its product, the underlying meaning (perhaps not picked up upon by many) was the use of a specific niche-design model for product creation; an insight I found to be quite intriguing when explored. Café discussion followed and new ideas presented themselves, with a far more focussed orientation. As with the day before, lunch and coffee were provided on demand, and given the amount of coffee that was drunk, I was surprised to see how far my 50Euro conference fee was going! This however was a testament to the organising committee for gathering a great sponsorship base for the event.
The final presentation of the day was give by Youtube… the speaker was Hans Rosling but unfortunately could not be present to give his talk on development, so the use of Internet technology allowed us to see his brilliant TED 2006 presentation. Given that we were asking questions regarding presentations after each lecture, Hans graced us with his vocal presence through the medium of Skype form California, allowing a healthy discussion on development with a key thinker in the field.
The evening was rounded off with yet another culinary treat as the Mayor greeted us into the City Hall to a banquet hosting the finest Swedish cuisine. If things were not by now prestigious enough, this certainly made it so. The banquet was followed by a tour of the city hall, which was thoroughly enjoyable.
The final day saw a round up of discussions with a focus on presenting our key concrete ideas for use in a document to be given to the European Parliament and Council of Ministers. To have had a conference of this nature and have it mean something out with the room made the work that we had all put in thoroughly satisfying. As yet not mentioned was the diversity of people met from different academic, social and cultural backgrounds, which in itself would provide great experience to anyone looking to interact in an international career field. The variety of academic disciplines lended itself to a multilateral debate not confined solely to one discipline.
In summary, my experience of BRIGHT 2007 was inspirational, insightful, productive and most prominently enjoyable. The level of organisation by the committee was almost natural but one could appreciate the time and effort put in given the level of success achieved. The whole event was documented well and the presence and knowledge of the key speakers (and those in between) was thoroughly exceptional. The organisation of sponsorship made this a highly accessible event and offered great value for money. Anyone reading this, the next one is to be hosted in Helsinki next year and I would highly recommend going.