The former President of the United States of America will speak at a business event near Oslo this September.
“We are honoured to welcome President Barack Obama to Norway,” said the event founder and CEO Christoffer Omberg.
The 44th President of the United States will speak at an event called The Future of Technology and Sustainability run by the Oslo Business Forum.
More than 3,000 attendees are expected at the event, to be held at the X Meeting Point conference centre near Lillestrøm, between the city and the airport.
He led the US through a transformation
Together with his co-founder Marius Røed Wang and the rest of the team, Omberg has been working hard to bring Obama to Norway for the conference, which is to be held on 26th September, 2018.
“He complements the programme in a brilliant way, given the fact that he led the United States during a period when the world underwent a digital transformation.”
“Companies have seen tremendous growth and we have seen how the sharing economy has taken the world by storm”.
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II served as the 44th President of the United States from January 20, 2009, to January 20, 2017. He was the first African American to take the presidency.
He was previously the junior United States Senator from Illinois from 2005 to 2008. Before that, he served in the Illinois State Senate from 1997 until 2004.
During his first two years in office, Obama signed many landmark bills into law. The main reforms were the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, better known by its informal name ‘Obamacare'.
During six years of his tenure, the unemployment rate in the USA dropped from 10% to 4.7%, and he was an outspoken supporter of marriage equality for LGBT people.
No stranger to Norway
Of course, this won't be the first time the former President has visited the Norwegian capital.
Nine months after taking office, Obama was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, accepting the award in Oslo with the caveat that he felt there were others “far more deserving of this honor than I.”
He was given the honour for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”, but the award drew criticism from some commentators. The New York Times called it a “stunning surprise”.
On the Nordic path
One of the main topics for the conference is the future of technology advancement, with a particular focus on creating sustainable businesses in a digital era.
The team has been working on this event for a couple of years and have taken input from a range of sources to design the theme based around three ‘big picture’ challenges:
- How can we implement new technology in our organization in the best possible way?
- How can we put the right strategies?
- How can we identify tomorrow's business model to create a sustainable future for the organization?
As a result, the event has been given the subtitle ‘Scandinavia 4.0: The Nordic path towards the new economy.’
Other international speakers at the the conference include MIT professor Andrew McAfee, CNN programme director Richard Quest and Oxford University lecturer Dr. Chris Kutarna.
Norwegian business representatives will also be speaking. NHH researchers Sveinung Jørgensen and Lars Jacob Tynes Pederesen, tech-expert Silvija Seres and Nordea’s Thina Saltvedt are on the list of confirmed speakers.
Oslo Business Forum
Since 2016, Oslo Business Forum has organized four conferences for the Norwegian business community. In just over two years, the company has grown from two to twelve employees.
Former speakers include Sir Alex Ferguson, Gary Vaynerchuk, Randi Zuckerberg, Garry Kasparov, Anita Krohn Traaseth and Kristin Skogen Lund.
