The international Arctic conference “In the Spirit of the Rovaniemi Process – Local and Global Arctic” brings about 200 influential Arctic participants from Finland and from all around the world to Rovaniemi on 24th-26th November, 2015.

The conference participants come from wide range of backgrounds, including decision makers, business community and experts. Among confirmed speakers in the opening plenary are Ambassador of the United States Charles C. Adams, Jr. and Ambassador of Japan Kenji Shinoda, the president of the EU Committee of the Regions Markku Markkula, the chair of the Arctic Economic Council Tara Sweeney and the former Prime Minister of Finland Paavo Lipponen.

The opening session will be held at the recently renovated Lappia Hall, designed by architect Alvar Aalto. The rest of the conference takes place at the Arktikum House, including a number of parallel scientific sessions covering a number of topics during two conference days. One of the sessions highlight the perspectives of European observer countries at the Arctic Council. Others include Arctic transportation Infrastructure, natural resources, geopolitics, Arctic urbanization and sustainable development, Arctic design, contemporary art, Arctic indigenous peoples’ livelihoods and languages, work and well-being in the Arctic and Arctic indigenous tourism.

The conference ends with a plenary discussing regional cooperation.

The event is organized by the University of Lapland and its Arctic Centre, the City of Rovaniemi and the Arctic Society of Finland. This year’s Conference is the second in the series of three biennial “In the Spirit of the Rovaniemi Process” conferences, the third of them scheduled to take place in November 2017. In 2017-2019 Finland will act as the chair of the Arctic Council. The Conference in 2017 will also be a part of the celebration program of the centenary of Finland's independence.

Conference website and updated speaker list: www.rovaniemiprocess.fi


Additional information:

Ilona Mettiäinen, Conference Manager
Arctic Centre, University of Lapland
rovaniemi.process(at)ulapland.fi
+358 40 4844273

Markku Heikkilä, Head of Science Communications
Arctic Centre, University of Lapland
markku.heikkila(at)ulapland.fi
+358 40 4844300