Nordic Business Forum
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 | |
| Founded | 2008 |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Jyväskylä, Finland |
Region served | Worldwide |
| Priit Liiv | |
| Website | www |
Nordic Business Forum (NBF) is a Finnish company, based in Jyväskylä.[1] The company is best known for its eponymous business and leadership conference in Helsinki.[2]
Nordic Business Forum is part of Nordic Business Group, which employs 31 people across Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Estonia. The current managing director is Priit Liiv. Nordic Business Forum is also a part of Business Forum Group which oversees the activities of Nordic Business Forum, Oslo Business Forum, and Amsterdam Business Forum.
The annual main event, Nordic Business Forum, gathers together over 7500 attendees from over 40 countries, 17.4% of the attendees being CEOs.[3]
Nordic Business Forum is a subsidiary of the Nordic Business Group, which was founded in 2008 by Hans-Peter Siefen and Jyri Lindén. It was originally known as the Finnish Community of Entrepreneurship before changing its name in 2011.[4]
The first Nordic Business Forum conference was held in October 2010. The following year, the first high-profile international speakers—former US Vice President Al Gore and motivational speaker Les Brown—were added to the lineup.
In 2013, Nordic Business Forum added a professional board of directors and held its first event outside of Finland—Sales Master Day in Tallinn, Estonia—featuring sales guru Brian Tracy.
The first Nordic Business Forum Sweden event was held in Stockholm in 2017,[5] with a Nordic Business Forum Norway event being added in Oslo the following year.[6]
In 2016, Nordic Business Group reported revenue of €15 million, with Nordic Business Forum generating €6.13m of the total.
Nordic Business Forum reported revenues of €7.39 million in 2017.[7]
In March 2018, Finnish marketing executive Aslak de Silva took over as CEO of Nordic Business Forum from co-founder Hans-Peter Siefen, who remains active with the company as the chairman of the board.[8]
In February 2022, Aslak de Silva left the company, and Nordic Business Forum partner and long time employer, Priit Liiv, stepped in as the interim managing director. A few months later, Priit Liiv was named CEO.
Awards and recognitions
Event descriptions
Nordic Business Forum
The company’s signature event is the Nordic Business Forum held annually in Helsinki, Finland since 2010. The 2018 event attracted more than 7,500 visitors and featured former US President Barack Obama as the main keynote speaker.[13][14]
Nordic Business Forum Sweden
Held in Stockholm since 2016, Nordic Business Forum Sweden mirrors the format of the Helsinki event but is smaller in scale. In 2018, the one-day event attracted around 1,000 attendees from 19 different countries.[15]
Nordic Business Forum Norway
Held for the first time in 2018, the Nordic Business Forum Norway takes place in Oslo and largely replicates the event held in Stockholm. The inaugural event attracted nearly 550 attendees.[16]
Speaker Contest
Ahead of the 2018 Nordic Business Forum in Helsinki, the organization launched its first Speaker Contest. More than 170 people applied, from which 24 candidates were chosen to speak at qualifying rounds held in Helsinki, Oslo, and Stockholm.[17]
Eight finalists were then invited back to Stockholm in August 2018, from which one speaker was chosen by a jury of audience members and Nordic Business Forum representatives.[18] The winner, James Hewitt, was added to Nordic Business Forum 2018 speaker lineup and received a €30,000 speaking fee for the engagement.
