About the conference

Technology and Governance:
Cambridge Baltic Conference 2016

The CBC 2016, co-hosted with the Cambridge Union Society, aims at generating a nexus of ideas that will combine the knowledge, creativity and experience of students, business community, politicians and academics to take lead in the discussions of the current state and the future of technology and governance.

The broad heading of Technology and Governance gives the conference an opportunity to discuss various matters: e-health, fintech, e-governance, talent attraction and modern diasporas, big data and governance, and much more.

The conference will also be a part of the British Estonian Chamber of Commerce’s (BECC) trade mission to the UK. The BECC’s delegation, which includes a number of business leaders from Estonia, will be taking part in the conference.

The Cambridge Baltic Conference (CBC) project was initiated in 2013 to gather leaders from various fields to discuss topics that are important to both the Baltic countries and the European Union. Every year it brings together speakers, students and guests of incredibly high calibre.

Programme

Saturday 12 November

  • 09:45 - 10:15Registration
  • 10:15 - 10:30Opening keynote

Main Panel 1

  • 10:30 - 11:50Fintech

The beginning of the 21st century marked the start of a true technological revolution and finance along with banking has changed from orthodoxy into Fintech. The focus of this panel will be placed on whether ordinary banks are required for Fintech ventures to succeed. What is the true role of Fintech and to what extent does it walk hand-in-hand with orthodox banking and finance.

  • 11:50 - 12:10Coffee break and networking

Parallel Panels

  • 12:10 - 13:10Talent attraction and modern diasporas

The Baltics have lost over a million talents over the last few decades but yet continue to thrive and lead the way in various technology fields. Now is the time to create, engage with the opportunities and witness the extraordinary Baltics transformation. The best talent attraction practices will be discussed in this panel, followed by the workshop on 'Baltics - Talent Magnet'.

  • 12:10 - 13:10Big Data and governance

Extracting knowledge and insights from large and complex collections of data available to governments could be extremely beneficial. How to improve health care, employment, economic productivity, security and governmental processes using data mining? What are the big data future perspectives in private and public sectors?

  • 13:10 - 14:10Lunch

Sandwiches will be provided for lunch.

Parallel Workshops

  • 14:30 - 15:30Baltics - Talent Magnet!

In the last decades Baltic countries have faced brain drain rather than attracting talents. People are leaving not only to seek higher standards of living but also eager to gain international education and experience. This modern diaspora has a lot of well established professionals who could be the best ambassadors for their countries. How can the Baltics engage and connect with them? On the other hand, what should we do to become the Talent magnet for our own nationals as well as foreign talents? This workshop will come up with bright recommendations on the strategy and innovative solutions for this to become the reality.

  • 14:30 - 15:30Legal implications for the fintech industry

The financial sector has been traditionally heavily regulated by the EU and the regulatory burden has been especially heavy during the post-crisis era. The growing importance of crowdfunding, payment services and fintech is dramatically changing our understanding of the financial sector. The regulators in Brussels are experiencing difficulties with keeping up with the rapidly changing environment. The underlying question is whether we actually want Brussels to keep up the pace and provide us with new rules for new technologies?

Main Panel 2

  • 15:30 - 16:30E-health

E-health is an innovative sector which aims to make healthcare accessible and efficient through using digital technologies. This panel will explore the challenges as well as the opportunities for e-health and bring together the governmental and personal perspectives.

  • 16:30 - 17:00Coffee break and networking

Main Panel 3

  • 17:00 - 18:00E-governance

E-governance takes many shapes and forms, but the underlying idea behind is increasing the operational governance efficiency and making the interaction between the government and its citizens more transparent and accessible. This panel focuses on the current stage of e-governance and will outline its future perspectives.

  • 18:00 - 18:20Closing keynote
  • 19:15 - 22:00Dinner

Join us for a formal dinner at Christ's College Hall, one of the finest amongst the Cambridge Colleges, on the 12th of November at 19:15. Dress code will be formal/ black tie optional. Guests shall inform us about the dietary requirements a couple of weeks before the event. There will be wine and non-alcoholic drinks served. We look forward to meeting you at Christ's College!

Tickets


The dinner tickets are currently sold out, but a few more may become available.
If you would like to be notified when there is an option of upgrading your regular conference ticket to a dinner ticket, please fill out this form.

Speakers

Keynote Speakers

Theresa Bubbear

British Ambassador to Estonia
Opening keynote speaker

Dr Adam Beaumont

CEO and founder of aql
Closing keynote speaker

E-health

Chris Leiter

Global Executive for Healthcare at KPMG
Moderator

Tanel Ross

Chairman of the Board of the Estonian National Health Insurance Fund
Panel speaker

Andres Metspalu

Director of the Estonian Genome Centre
Panel speaker

Ain Aaviksoo

Deputy Secretary General for E-services and Innovation at Ministry of Social Affairs
Panel speaker

Paula Kink

CEO of hINF
Panel speaker

Keith Willcock

eHealth Strategy & Policy Lead for the Scottish Government
Panel speaker

Fintech

Meelis Atonen

Member of the Board at Tavex
Opening speaker

James Oates

BECC Chairman of the Board
Moderator

Priit Põldoja

Founder of Inbank
Panel speaker

Norris Koppel

Founder & CEO of Monese
Panel speaker

Andres Kitter

Head of Retail Banking at LHV
Panel speaker

Daumantas Dvilinskas

CEO & Co-Founder at TransferGo
Panel speaker

Daniel Nyvang Mariussen

UK Regional Manager at Funderbeam
Panel speaker

Marius Jurgilas

The Board Member of the Bank of Lithuania
Closing speaker

E-governance

Kaspar Korjus

Head of the Estonian E-Residency project
Opening speaker

Tobias Stone

Special Advisor to e-Residency Program of the Estonian Government; founder of Identit.ee and Newsquare.io
Moderator

Ignas Rubikas

Founder of ManoSeimas.lt
Panel speaker

Pēteris Zilgalvis

Head of Unit, Startups and Innovation, Digital Single Market Directorate, DG CONNECT at European Commission
Panel speaker

Mindaugas Glodas

Partner and General Manager at Nextury Ventures
Panel speaker

Talent Attraction and Modern Diasporas

Andrius Francas

Partner at Alliance for Recruitment
Panel speaker

Kotryna Stankute

Director at Global Lithuanian Leaders
Moderator

Mantas Katinas

General Manager at Invest Lithuania
Panel speaker

Piret Potisepp

Initiator of "Work in Estonia – attracting foreigner specialists to Estonian action plan for 2015-2016"
Panel speaker

Vita Liberte

Managing Partner at BDO Latvia
Panel speaker

Big Data and Governance

Ekaterina Kochmar

Research Associate at the Computer Laboratory of the University of Cambridge
Moderator

Ray Larson

Senior Business Analyst at Whitehat Analytics
Panel speaker

Andrius Aučinas

Head of Engineering at the Hub of All Things
Panel speaker

Ernests Jenavs

Founder at Edurio
Panel speaker

Workshop: Legal implications for the fintech industry

Marko Kairjak PhD (Tartu), LLM (Cantab.)

Partner and Attorney-at-Law at VARUL (Member of Tark Grunte Sutkiene group)
Workshop presenter

Workshop: Baltics - Talent Magnet!

Kotryna Stankute

Director at Global Lithuanian Leaders
Workshop presenter

Main Sponsor

Varul

Sponsors

Contact us if interested in supporting our efforts and looking for a sponsorship deal!

Partners & Supporters

Venues

Conference venue:
The Cambridge Union Society
9a Bridge Street, Cambridge, CB2 1UB
Dinner venue:
Christ's College
St Andrew's St, Cambridge CB2 3BU

Previous Years

Organising Committee

About the organisers

Cambridge Baltic Conference 2016 is jointly organised by:

  • CUEST - Cambridge University Estonian Society;
  • CULA - Cambridge University Latvian Association;
  • CULS - Cambridge University Lithuanian Society;

The three aforementioned student societies have been established in 2011, 2013 and 2008 respectively. Their membership now exceeds one hundred exceptionally bright and active full-time students from the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford. The members of the societies are working towards undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in various disciplines. Together we build a friendly environment for sharing ideas and experience.

Although relatively new, CULS, CUEST and CULA have already proven solid organisation, clear vision and long term goals. Our successful past and present projects have included the Lithuanian Students Forum, Lithuanian Ideas Forum 2011, interactive conference LINK2012, Cambridge Baltic Conference 2013, Cambridge Baltic Conference 2014, Cambridge Baltic Conference 2015, student mentorship project Academic Buddy, guest lectures by Prof Leonidas Donskis, Prof Ene Ergma, Prof Mart Ustav, President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Urmas Paet MEP, and classical music concerts by Algirdas Galdikas, Maksim Štšura, Rimantas Vingras and The Mixed Choir of the European Capital of Culture. These events attracted hundreds of people and were extensively featured in the media.

Organising Committee for CBC 2016

  • Kristian Sutt (Chair)
  • Aidas Liaudanskas
  • Elena Gelžinite
  • Justas Dauparas
  • Justina Gilevskaja
  • Kadi Liis Saar
  • Elvina Petrenaite-Kartane
  • Kert Pütsepp
  • Marek Rei
  • Raminta Tomkute
  • Tadas Kartanas
  • Teisi Tamming