Festive Seminar | The Probabilist . com

Festive Seminar November 9, 2006

Posted by The Probabilist in : [News], Communication, Financial Literacy, Society, Politics, Studies, Speaking , trackback

I had the privilege of listening to the speeches of three great individuals today at the 180th year anniversary of a local bank that cooperates with the University I’m studying at. I wrote down many pointers on what they considered to be important in today’s global development, but I’ll only present the key information they wanted to emphasize.

Sweden’s former prime minister Göran Persson started by speaking about Scandinavia’s role and progress as a part of the EU. He expressed his concern about the culmination of global warming, energy price changes and the trade relationship with Russia. He also touched upon the need of alternative energy resources, EU’s process of expanding, The need for UN to get involved in the Iraq question and the risks of having today’s positive prosperity in Scandinavia. The substance in his speech didn’t offer much new information, but I found him to be a great speaker.

George Soros, Chairman of Soros Fund Management and Open Society Institute followed by sharing his view on Europe’s role in the world. He noted the problems USA is facing with its housing boom and the lost influence resulted by the war on terrorism. Funny how he didn’t mention the budget and trade deficits as well. Anyway, as he stated that the world order is gradually leading to world disorder he emphasized the importance of Europe to re-energize and strengthen its open society structure, which was a driving force in the creation of the EU. Being at the age of 76 and giving a speech without notes was worth a round of applause alone.

Last up was Sixten Korkman, CEO of ETLA giving a speech in Finnish about the future of the euro and the European Monetary Union. He pointed out the incongruence of development between the countries in the EU and if Italy is allowed or should leave the EU. Additionally he spoke about the lost focus in the Lisbon process and conflicts that the euro is going through. At times I had trouble keeping up with his thoughts, but he landed a couple of great jokes now and then.

It’s a strange coincidence that on the same week I happened to see a poster on the wall about the Helsinki toastmasters club and I actually didn’t know about this organization until a couple of weeks ago. I’ll probably go pay them a visit before the year ends, see what it’s like and find out what kind of speeches they give. It truly is a skill sharing your thoughts in a welcomed way and is definitely worth practicing.