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At DiscoTech's Summit, you'll join the most dynamic minds in the industry to discuss the latest and greatest ideas, technologies, and solutions that are driving real change and making a positive impact on the world around us. From the groundbreaking Impact Report launch to discussions about the importance of international talent and new technologies like the Metaverse and Web3, you'll be at the forefront of the latest trends and innovations.

Get to know our expert speakers!

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14:10-15:00 
Epicenter Impact Report Launch

Alexandra Pasternak-Jackson
CEO, Amcham Finland

A dual-citizen of Finland and the United States, she has 15 years of transatlantic business experience, working to promote international business and foreign direct investment to Finland, as well as providing opportunities and networks for Finnish companies heading to the US market. Pasternak-Jackson is a frequent public speaker and moderator, addressing senior leadership audiences in both the United States and Finland on topics ranging from foreign direct investment and the transatlantic economy to networking and women’s leadership topics. She lives in Helsinki with her two children. 

Amcham Finland is the voice of international business in Finland and the home of transatlantic success. We are a nonprofit association, representing 200 multinational companies and working directly with their leadership teams. We advocate for a business environment that encourages Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Finland and provide Country Managers with the tools, networks, and exclusive best practice sessions they need to grow their business. We also work with Finnish companies to help them enter and succeed in the U.S. market, saving our members time, money, and risk with our proven Launchpad U.S.A. program. Our programs help leaders reach their full potential through our focus on best practices, networking, cross-industry collaboration, and leadership development.

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Katri Pakula
Sustainability Designer, Exove Design

Katri is a service designer with a strategic mindset and a strong moral compass. As a designer of digital services and products, communication concepts and more, it is her passion to drive positive impact for people and planet: to include and serve all audiences and bring the environmental aspects into consideration. In her Master’s thesis (spring 2022), Katri studied digital carbon footprint / green ICT in public procurements. “In building a more sustainable world we need cross-institutional collaboration, a state of will to continuously learn and, despite the incompleteness, courage to act.”

Exove Design is designing a sustainable and humane future. Together with their clients, they design and implement bold solutions that serve the needs of end users and are sustainable for the future. Exove strives to create human-centered experiences, user-friendly digital services, impactful communication, and insightful concepts that build more people-centric and therefore sustainable business. Exove values diversity, empathy, and dare to immerse themselves in their clients' world, which enables them to gain deeper customer understanding. With their help, their clients can utilize digitalization as a tool to offer better services to people. In their own operations, they strive to create a fair working environment where people can be themselves and develop freely.

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Sverker Skogberg
Senior Vice President, Public Affairs, PAF

Sverker has extensive knowledge about the political gaming industry development in Finland, as well as in Sweden. Before joining PAF Mr. Skogberg came from a long career in the aviation business, working with government and industry affairs for the airline Finnair. He has extensive experience in the lobbying and contract negotiating area.

Paf was founded in 1966 and offers games on the internet and on board cruise ships in the Baltic and the North Sea. Paf's mission is to generate funds for the public community. Every year, around €20 million in Paf funds are distributed by the local Åland government to a range of projects within health, culture, education and sustainability. Paf is one of the leading companies concerning responsible gambling, frequently implementing new tools to protect players gambling habits.

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Patrick Mesterton
CEO & Co-Founder, Epicenter

Before founding Epicenter, Patrick served as CEO for innovations consultancy outfit Result. Patrick has been an advisor on innovation and growth projects to global organizations such as Santander Consumer Bank, Grant Thornton and the Egyptian Central Bank. Patrick serves as an advisor to and is part of the board of Altera, a Fintech hub in Egypt founded by the Central Bank of Egypt.

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Moderator / Ellen Bjerkehag
Head of Community, Epicenter

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15:15-15:40
Into the Metaverse: Avatar Tech – Will avatars change our lives?

Wesa Aapro
Metaverse Lead, Yle Innovations

Wesa believes in the possibilities of new technology and tries to ignore the impossibilities. Lately he has been knee-deep in The Metaverse, which is already here BTW. But guess what? Also AI sparks joy: It has no ego, which makes it hallucinogenic. Some use chemicals to kill ego, to transcend. AI uses data: It is created in our own image! We have summoned the divine by removing ego with neural networks. AI is not sentient, not omnipotent. It is naïve, it is pure. I love it!

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Tim Gorree
CEO, Digistars

Tim is an experienced Graphics Technician, who has been involved with the internet since the early 90s, and has several decades of experience in designing digital and mobile B2B and B2C environments.Previously he worked as Nokia's Virtual CEO for the Virtual World of Second Life. As a recognized speaker and innovator in this category, he has a deep passion for technology and creativity, which led him to found Digistars, a next-generation creative digital agency.

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Moderator / Joey Bayer
Head of Community, Epicenter Helsinki

Joey Bayer has been responsible for creating conversations that matter for more than 16 years.

From creating the space, to connecting key players, to driving and setting the agenda, Joey brings together individuals for moments that both transform and inspire.

Over the course of his career, Joey has hosted the world's most fascinating and influential people - from world leaders, like Bill Clinton, to iconic legends like Liza Minelli, to the CEOs of today's Fortune 500 companies.

Joey's intuitive ability to connect with others, his passion for people and dialogue, and ability to get directly to the heart of the discussion have earned him a reputation of trust and respect with leaders around the world, and made him a central figure in today's most important conversations.

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15:55-16:20
Hired: Finland we have a problem! How to attract and retain foreign talent.

Liisa Ohtonen
Head of Learning and Relocation Services, Acolad

Liisa leads the Learning and Relocation Services business unit at Acolad and has over 20 years of experience in the language and learning industry. She is passionate about culture & language, integration and life-long learning. Together with her team she assists organizations to relocate and integrate new hires and facilitate more culturally inclusive and language aware workplaces.

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Nadia Farooq
IT Talent Advisor and Partner, Finder Seekers

Nadia is an energetic and inquisitive IT Talent Advisor at FindersSeekers! With a passion for diversity, equity, and inclusion, she is a skilled recruiter who always puts the candidate's experience first. Originally from Lahore, Pakistan, she loves to connect with people over a good cup of coffee and is known for her curiosity and great conversation skills.

Recently, she conducted a survey to better understand the motivations and requirements of international tech talent working in Finland. Her findings will help her create even better experiences for her candidates and make a positive impact on the recruitment process.

In addition to her work as a recruiter, She loves to travel, explore different food cultures, and listen to music. With her fun-loving and adventurous spirit, she approaches life with a sense of joy and enthusiasm that is contagious to those around her.

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Rosa Thurman
Director of Foreign Affiliate Services & Sustainability, Amcham Finland

Rosa works with around 100 foreign direct investors to gather insights for improving Finland’s business environment for international companies and talent alike. Rosa began her career at Financial Times and then worked 10+ years for financial data and media companies in London, UK, including Thomson Financial and Bloomberg before moving back to Finland.

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Silvia Ruz-Anjala
Project Planner of the Spouse Program, City of Helsinki

Silvia is a Chilean talent and learning specialist turned into a knowmad, with 15 years of international experience helping organizations to grow and people to develop their skills. She is passionate about cultural integration, life-long learning, innovation and creating social impact. Silvia got a degree in Social Psychology from the University of Helsinki, is the mother of a young Finnish citizen and just returned to Finland after 20 years abroad. Works as a project planner in the City of Helsinki, under the Talent Boost Ecosystem, offering and creating services to improve the life and job opportunities of highly skilled international talents.

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Moderator / Joey Bayer
Head of Community, Epicenter Helsinki

Joey Bayer has been responsible for creating conversations that matter for more than 16 years.

From creating the space, to connecting key players, to driving and setting the agenda, Joey brings together individuals for moments that both transform and inspire.

Over the course of his career, Joey has hosted the world's most fascinating and influential people - from world leaders, like Bill Clinton, to iconic legends like Liza Minelli, to the CEOs of today's Fortune 500 companies.

Joey's intuitive ability to connect with others, his passion for people and dialogue, and ability to get directly to the heart of the discussion have earned him a reputation of trust and respect with leaders around the world, and made him a central figure in today's most important conversations.

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16:30-16:55
Web3: (CR)eaLity – Who owns It?

Dominique Moralez
Founder, Convergent Reality

Dominique is a dynamic multi-lingual multi-cultural co-founder of startups in sectors including LanguageTech, InvesTech and LegalTech, with over three decades of experience in the creative industries worldwide. Founder of Convergent Reality (CR), Dominique Moralez has introduced a new field of study, dedicated to increasing human capacity for perceiving new emergent realities. In 2022, Dominique was selected to participate in the 90 Day Finn programme, organized by Helsinki Partners and the City of Helsinki.

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Emma Kirjavainen
Founder, Emma Kirjavainen

Emma Kirjavainen is the founder of her own marketing agency, which was created to be the luxury marketing agency of the future. With her long background in luxury and deep knowledge in storytelling, digital marketing as well as Web3, her agency's focus is on digital luxury marketing. Companies specializing in luxury goods have been forced to expand beyond their historical boundaries, moving into “experiential” spaces. Emma's goal is to drive this change towards the future.

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Jenni Pasanen
NFT Artist

Jenni is creating in the new medium and the era of art, where creativity of machine & human unite as one. Instead of canvas painted by a brush, Jenni uses generative adversarial networks. This tool frees the imagination, to create something unprecedented & fascinating.

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Jessy S.
NFT Artist

Jessy is an artist, collector, curator, and founder of three web3 projects. She is of French/Lebanese descent and currently lives in Helsinki. One of her projects is Art From Future, which is a DAO that concentrates on digital art and decentralized curation. Another project she co-founded is Gxrls Revolution, a collective that empowers women artists in web3 through yearly catalogs, online/offline education, and events

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Moderator / Joey Bayer
Head of Community, Epicenter Helsinki

Joey Bayer has been responsible for creating conversations that matter for more than 16 years.

From creating the space, to connecting key players, to driving and setting the agenda, Joey brings together individuals for moments that both transform and inspire.

Over the course of his career, Joey has hosted the world's most fascinating and influential people - from world leaders, like Bill Clinton, to iconic legends like Liza Minelli, to the CEOs of today's Fortune 500 companies.

Joey's intuitive ability to connect with others, his passion for people and dialogue, and ability to get directly to the heart of the discussion have earned him a reputation of trust and respect with leaders around the world, and made him a central figure in today's most important conversations.

Read more