The Nordic Business Forum Speaker Contest finale was held yesterday at Helsinki Airport. Talented and enthusiastic Anssi Rantanen,  Finland CEO at Growth Tribe Academy, won the competition and will join the Nordic Business Forum 2019 speaker lineup and will be paid a 30,000 € speaking fee. The winner was chosen among six finalists by the combined vote of audience and jury members. The jury comprised of six members: Mads Faurholt-Jorgensen (managing partner at Nova Founders Capital), Jenni Tolonen (CEO & partner at Management Events), Anne Berner (Minister of Transport and Communications), Alf Rehn (professor, speaker, & Nordic Business Forum board member), Ville Saarikalle (head of speaker relations at NBForum), and Hans-Peter Siefen (producer, co-founder & chairman of the board at NBForum). Over 180 people applied for our 2019 contest and 24 people were selected to attend the qualifying rounds. The qualifying rounds were hosted in March in Helsinki, Stockholm, and Oslo. Two audience favorites from each location were selected for the final round in Helsinki. The other five finalists were: Kathrine Aspaas, CEO of The Emotion Revolution Vegard Jørmeland, head of behavioral design at DNB, see speech here Bita Yazdani, corporate philosopher and culture strategist at SelfLeaders Micael Hermansson, lecturer and author at M Hermansson AB Christina Dahlblom, managing director of Miltton Sparks Oy, see speech here “It’s been a pleasure to work with Nordic Business Forum for such a successful second edition of the Speaker Contest. We were amazed by the talent of every contestant and were absolutely blown away by the winner. It was a tough call, and I’m very confident that everyone who made it to the qualifying round of this contest will go on to have wonderful professional speaking careers!”, says Johan Sjöstrand, CEO of MySpeaker. Anssi Rantanen will speak about “Why we need to fall in love with learning”. The previously announced speakers of Nordic Business Forum 2019 are George Clooney, Randi Zuckerberg, Steve Wozniak, Brené Brown, Daniel Pink, Sara Blakely, Alexander Osterwalder, Donald Miller, Juliet Funt, Costas Markides, and Carla Harris.  Congratulations Anssi Rantanen and all the other contestants for an amazing competition and a great win in very talented company. Pictures: Nordic Business Forum