SPOT Nordic Annual event

The event gathered 50+ Portuguese and Swedish stakeholders from academia, government, and the innovation ecosystem, to mingle and discuss the opportunities within the Nordic-Portuguese tech scene together over pastel de natas, cinnamon buns, and coffee. The lineup of panelists and speakers consisted of, for example;

• Gonçalo Matias, Minister in the Cabinet of the Prime Minister and of State Reform, Portugal
• Niclas Stjernberg, CEO at UIC – Uppsala Innovation Centre
• Prof. Virginia Dignum, Professor of Responsible Artificial Intelligence, Umeå University & Director, AI policy lab
• Prof. Iolanda Leite, Associate Professor, Department of Robotics, Perception / Learning, KTH Royal Institute of Technology

The core topic was AI, ethics, and the future of work. In a rapid changing technical environment and society, what are important skills to foster in universities, at the workplaces, and what will the job market be in the future? What are the tensions between ethics, regulations, and innovations – and what can be built in a constrained environment?

“This is highly relevant with our upcoming Career Day the 4th of October, where we’re going to talk a lot about upskilling and reskilling. One of my main takeaways from the SPOT Nordic annual event was that we need to consider the difference between job replacement and task replacement. We’ll be able to automate a lot of our tasks – but the job of creating solutions to hard problems is still on us.”, Amalia comments.

Another thing that was discussed as a way to bridge opportunities was intercultural competence.

“This lies very close to my heart as a community lead. Within Women in Tech Sweden we gather a lot of women and allies with a plethora of backgrounds, both within as well as outside of Sweden, and there’s a huge innovation potential in that. We can both open doors into the Swedish tech ecosystem by helping people to understand the cultural contexts within our industry, as well as help challenge our own ecosystem to become more diverse and inclusive, and making use of people’s full potential.”, Amalia adds.

Her biggest takeaway wasn’t, however, the insights from the panels and pitches, but rather the pride that the SPOT Nordic community shared.

“The organizers were so proud of having gathered us all in the same room and pulling off this event, and it rubbed off on me. It’s so easy to only focus on the challenges and job to be done right now, but to also make sure to celebrate the journey made.” Amalia concluded.