Meetings in Helsinki were helpfully arranged by Leena Imola, a partner at Fountain Park. She had an on-going project with us in Singapore and helped to set up various meetings within the Finn futuring community - public administration and academics. It was unfortunate that we did not manage to secure meetings with the private companies - many were too coy and humble about their futuring/ foresights efforts. I met with SITRA, TEKES, TEM (Finnish Ministry of Employment and Economy (equivalent of my unit)), Finland Futures Research Centre, and a senior advisor to the Parliamentary Committee for the Future, and some research work done by Fountain Park.
In essence, Finland has a well-entrenched and structure futuring model. It was started by a few champions, who introduced the concept to the government, which was later endorsed into a permanent structure within the Finn Parliamentary system. Their public administration has many trained and qualified futurists, examining and churning out reports on various aspects of society, as directed by the government. Finland also has a growing community of private sector futuring companies/ consultants, and company-based activities supported by various industry associations. The academia and volumes of research work bridges the two sectors, and there is a thriving network of foresights practitioners interacting with one another.
Much of the Finn foresights work focuses on innovation, science and technology. As Leena observed, the Finns' output was largely positive, highlighting opportunities, unlike say UK, which focuses more on risk assessments. Singapore was in some ways similar, looking ahead to the future in search of new opportunities rather than focusing on threats. However, the Finns' futuring perspective was typically more inward-looking (tackling societal issues, integration of S&T with culture, youth values etc), rather than casting a global view.
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