Report from Almedalen

Ahead of Almedalen Week, my colleague Pär Nygårds made a prediction: that peak digitalization has not yet passed in terms of seminars. He was right.

A recurring theme throughout the week was lifelong learning - an issue of paramount importance in a fast-paced, transformative and digitizing world. Another topic of conversation was AI. Many of the discussions were tentative, and not always of high quality, but they were nevertheless on target. These are phenomena we have to deal with, whether we like it or not. During our very well-attended seminar on the theme of lifelong learning, the Minister for Digitalization, Peter Eriksson, responded to a direct question about the urgent need to set up a commission on lifelong learning, and I interpreted his answer as sharing our basic view. This was gratifying. As far as AI is concerned, I think there is an emerging consensus that it is the actual application of the technology in business and the public sector that is the way forward. This will of course require joint efforts.

Otherwise, Almedalen placed great demands on flexibility. The Swedish national football team's good fortune almost became our bad fortune, as the round of 16 match against Switzerland was to be played at the same time as our mingle. However, by agilely changing the menu of our planned mingle to pizza and malt, and by broadcasting the match ourselves, our mingle was very well attended and on some occasions hospitable.

With this little report, and with a large dose of social training pain, we now go to summer break, and with a pious hope for rest for all of us, we at IT&Telekomföretagen wish you a really nice summer.