Keynote speakers
Pekka Haavisto
Member of the Parliament of Finland
Pekka Haavisto brings a multifaceted perspective on polarization, shaped by decades of experience in national and international leadership. He has served as Finland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Minister of the Environment, and Minister for International Development. On the global stage, he has held key roles as the United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for the Darfur peace process and as the European Union's Special Representative in Sudan and Darfur.
A widely respected and popular politician, Haavisto has traveled extensively across Finland and the world, listening to the concerns, hopes, and lived experiences of people from all regions and backgrounds. His work reflects a deep commitment to dialogue, inclusion, and understanding in the face of societal divides.
Nicklas Larsen
Nicklas Larsen is a leading futures practitioner, educator, author, and public speaker dedicated to strengthening the political and cultural representation of future generations. From the Asian Development Bank to the Philanthropy Europe Association and Parsons School of Design, his work builds imagination infrastructures and equips leaders and learners with the skills to anticipate change, navigate uncertainty, and shape just, transformative futures. As Head of Impact and UNESCO Co-Chair in Futures Capabilities at the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies, Nicklas champions the Institute's mission to democratise and integrate futures literacy across the arts, culture, education, philanthropy, and policy.
Personal reflections on the notion of polarisation:
We are living through a time of deepening polarisation - politically, socially, culturally. The spaces we once shared for dialogue and collective meaning-making are becoming fractured, and trust in institutions, and in each other, is eroding. In such a climate, the future is often weaponised - used to justify rigid ideologies, or to perpetuate fear and division. Yet, I believe futures thinking holds a counterforce to this fragmentation. Futures work - when it is inclusive, imaginative, and intergenerational - can help us transcend the binaries of now. It gives us tools to surface hidden assumptions, to explore alternative pathways, and to hold space for complexity without collapsing into conflict. At its best, it invites us to think not just about what could happen, but what should happen - and who should be part of deciding that.
This is why the future generations agenda matters so deeply. It is not just a policy innovation or an institutional mechanism - it is a moral and imaginative framework that reorients decision-making away from short-termism and toward long-term stewardship. When we anchor our choices in the wellbeing of those yet to come, we are reminded of our interconnectedness and our responsibility to something larger than ourselves. The future generations agenda carries unifying potential precisely because it calls us into shared purpose. It encourages us to listen more deeply, imagine more courageously, and act more justly. In a polarised world, this might be one of the few remaining grounds on which we can meet - not as partisans or professionals, but as ancestors-in-the-making.