{"id":6890,"date":"2016-10-16T10:02:34","date_gmt":"2016-10-16T08:02:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oeb.global\/OEB_Newsportal\/?p=6890"},"modified":"2017-06-13T18:00:57","modified_gmt":"2017-06-13T16:00:57","slug":"silicon-vikings-connecting-the-nordics-with-silicon-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oeb.global\/oeb-insights\/silicon-vikings-connecting-the-nordics-with-silicon-valley\/","title":{"rendered":"Silicon Vikings: Connecting the Nordics with Silicon Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"silicon_vikings_navid_ostadian-binai2\"<\/a>By\u00a0Eilif Trondsen (Silicon Viking Board Member and Chair, Special Interest Group for Entrepreneurship and Learning)<\/em><\/p>\n

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Nordic Tech and Entrepreneurship<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Leif Erikson and the Vikings made the treacherous journey across the Atlantic in long boats starting in 999 AD. Today, the journey is a lot easier – and Norwegian Air now offers cheap, direct flights from Nordic capitals to Silicon Valley. As entrepreneurship has exploded in the Nordics and startups increasingly think global from the get-go, cheap flights help globally oriented entrepreneurs connect to Silicon Valley and beyond. Larger firms are also coming, setting up Silicon Valley (SV) innovation outposts as part of their open innovation strategy and need to understand digital transformation.<\/p>\n

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The dynamic Nordic\/Baltic startup scene and the spread and accelerating adoption of digital technology have brought growing interest by entrepreneurs, corporate executives and policy makers to visit and gain new insights into the workings of SV. This region near the SF Bay continues to be the leading hotspot and unique cluster for technology\/innovation\/entrepreneurship and has the most dynamic tech innovation ecosystem in the world\u2014having evolved for over sixty years.<\/p>\n

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Silicon Vikings: Leveraging Connections<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The developments over the last five years or so have resulted in growing awareness of and interest in Silicon Vikings (SVs), a not-for-profit, professional networking organization in SV and the Nordics\/Baltics. We now serve a community of around 30,000\u2014focusing on \u201cbuilding innovation bridges\u201d between these regions, connecting individuals, large and small companies, academic institutions, and policy makers. While it is nearly twenty years old, SVs has become more active and ambitious in the last four to five years, moving beyond organising networking and topic-focused events\u2014 on technology, innovation, entrepreneurship, health tech, education and learning, and other topics of interest to our Silicon Valley and Nordic\/Baltic community.<\/p>\n

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SVs serves our community in part by leveraging the professional networks that our volunteers have built up over many years living and working in SV. The Board members<\/a> of SVs are professionals with extensive networks they have built over long careers in the Valley\u2014which we can use to the benefit of our Nordic\/Baltic visitors and our other activities. Our President, Richard Allen Horning, has worked as a lawyer for several of SV\u2019s leading law firms for over 45 years, and also serves as Honorary Consul for the Republic of Estonia. Our Executive Director, Charlotte Danielsson, is a lawyer focusing on business immigration law and business law and has lived and worked in Silicon Valley for eighteen years. Christian Olsson, co-founder of NeuraMetrix, is our Media Director\u2014keeping our community informed about the latest developments in SV and the Nordics\/Baltics via Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin\u2014has also worked and lived in Silicon Valley for eighteen years. Knud Balslev, a Dane working in software and renewable energy, has lived in the SV area for ten years. And I have lived in SV for forty years and have worked for 37 years as a researcher and consultant at SRI International (formerly Stanford Research Institute) and Strategic Business Insights (a spinout from SRI). As a result of the wide and deep professional networks of our Board members, we typically have only a few \u201cdegrees of separation\u201d from most people we want to connect with in Silicon Valley or in the Nordics\/Baltics.<\/p>\n

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New Direction: Research<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Given the interest of our Board members and our community, we have recently expanded into research in two areas that align closely with many of our other activities:<\/p>\n

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