People from Scotland, Scottish Isles, Greenland, Iceland, Faroe Islands, and Norway have been especially invited to take active part in the conference.

Scotland

• Inga Burton, Orkney - tbc
• John Goodlad
• Tom Wills
• Elsa Cox, Orkney - tbc

Greenland

• Miki Jensen, Director for Innovation South Greenland
• Aviaja Lennert Olsen, Chair of Greenland Student Association in Danmark
• Natuk Lund Meire, Head of Department for Agriculture, Self Sufficiency, Energy, and Environment
• Naasunnguaq Beck, Director for Arctic Circle Business
• Thomas Mogensen, Director, Nalic Ventures

Iceland

• Þóroddur Bjarnason
• Vífill Karlsson, MA in economy, consultant at West Iceland Regional Development, professor at Bifrost University. Studies living conditions in Iceland.
• Anna Karlsdóttir
• Gréta Bergrún Jóhannesdóttir
• Þorsteinn Másson 

Faroe Islands

• Ben Arabo
• Firouz Gaini
• Karin Marie Funding Lyster
• Gestur Hovgaard
• Paul Condy, Bakkafrost
• Johnny í Grótinum      

Norway

• Kjersti Eline Tønnessen Busch
• Laura Johanne Olsen, Program Manager, Nordland, Lofoten. Public/private partnership for green growth and change into low emission community.
• Daniel Jarnæs Båtstrand

Anna Karlsdóttir, Associate Professor & Fulbright Arctic Initiative Scholar, University of Iceland

• History in the Nordic Council, now Professor in Geography and Tourism Studies – Life & Environmental Dep., School of Engineering & Natural Sciences, University of Iceland. Specialised in coastal regions, rural districts and cities. Arctic, international relations, societal and industrial shifts across various sectors, including tourism, primary sectors.

Ben Arabo, CEO of the Faroese Business Development fund, Framtak.

• Framtak invests in innovative companies in the Faroe Islands. Currently the fund has a portfolio of 20 active investments. Ben Arabo, who is a Faroese national, is an economist with a background in the Energy sector and in the Financial sector.

Daniel Jarnæs Båtstrand, young entrepreneur, and leader of a local political party in Mosjøen, Norway

Firouz Gaini, professor in anthropology and head of research at the Faculty of History and Social Sciences, University of the Faroe Islands

He studied in Oslo, Copenhagen and Torshavn. His research focuses on young people, family relations, small island communities, and future(s). He is associate editor of Island Studies Journal and BARN – forskning om barn og barndom i Norden. He has done ethnographic fieldwork in Greenland, Japan and the Faroe Islands. He is the co-editor of several books, including Gender and island Communities (Routledge 2020) and Valuing the Past, Sustaining the Future? Exploring Coastal Societies, Childhood(s) and Local Knowledge in Times of Global Transition (Springer 2022).

Gestur Hovgaard, Professor in Arctic Social Science, Greenland/Faroe Islands

• My research takes a problem-oriented, interdisciplinary social science approach, exploring the complex interplay between people, institutions, and the dynamics of stability and change. I focus on contextual, practice-oriented studies with social-historical, contemporary, and forward-looking perspectives on development and planning in local communities and institutions, particularly their interactions. My work spans innovation, entrepreneurship, regional development, urban planning, business development, and mobility.
• Empirically, I study planning processes in local communities and organizations, focusing on the Nordic region and Arctic areas. My current projects include challenges faced by small, peripheral universities in educational planning, opportunities for interdisciplinary learning, sustainable value chains in Nordic fishing communities, and socio-economic studies on the market society’s historical development in Nordic peripheral areas.

Dr. Gréta Bergrún Jóhannesdóttir, Researcher at Bifröst University, Iceland

• Researcher with a focus on rural Iceland, gender, sociology and equality.

Halla Nolsøe Poulsen, Director of Nordic Atlantic Cooperation - NORA

John Goodlad, Shetland

• John has worked in the seafood industry throughout his career. Initially working for the Shetland Fishermen’s Association, he also became a Director of several fish processing companies.  He then became a fish farmer, specialising in the production of organic salmon and halibut. After selling this business, John worked for Prince Charles’s International Sustainability Unit, providing advice on a variety of global fisheries and aquaculture initiatives.
• John now advises two international Seafood Investment Funds whose focus is investing in sustainable fishing and fish farming projects in the developing world. He also is the Chair of the UHI Centre for Sustainable Seafood, which aspires to place the seafood industry at the heart of the sustainability debate and to enable it to become more proactive in this area.
• John is also an author. Following on the success of his last book, The Salt Roads, his new book Food from the Sea (June, 2025) looks at the future of the global seafood industry.

John Randall, Chairman of the Islands Book Trust.

Johnny í Grótinum, Chair of the Faroe Islands Economic Council, Lecturer in Economics and Management

Karin Marie Funding Lyster, entrepreneur, Faroe Islands

• Born in Denmark, raised in the Faroe Islands, and graduated in Norway. Founded MAI Learning AS, an EdTech company focused on integrating AI into daily life through a human-centric approach, with solutions developed alongside our customers. Won best Arctic youth company (X2) and earned a silver medal in Norwegian youth entrepreneurship.

Kjersti Eline Tønnessen Busch, CEO and Founder of SALT – Sustainable Coastal Development, Norway 

Tom Wills, Co-Founder, Equitable Energy Research and Director, Voar, Shetland

• Tom Wills is a a co-founder of Equitable Energy Research CIC and a director of Voar, a Shetland-based energy consultancy. Tom's recent work has included co-authoring reports for Scotland's Just Transition Commission and Shetland Islands Council on a fair level of community benefit from energy developments, and advising the U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office.
• Tom holds mechanical and marine engineering degrees from the University of Glasgow and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Tom worked for over 15 years in offshore renewable energy, including on projects at the European Marine Energy Centre and in South America and South-East Asia.

Þorsteinn Másson, Managing Director, Blámi Energy Initiative, Iceland

• As a managing director at Blami, I lead a team of capable engineers, lawyers and consultants, focusing on materializing energy transition projects. We are working with diverse stakeholders ranging from entrepreneurs, power companies, governmental agencies and Iceland largest aquaculture companies.  
• With degrees in both Business and Marine Engineering, Thorsteinn brings extensive experience from his tenure in the fishing, aquaculture and energy industries. Blami has formed strategic partnerships with key players across multiple domains—ranging from aquaculture and fishing organizations to cutting-edge tech firms, municipalities, and government agencies. Together with his dedicated team, Blami has spearheaded innovative projects aimed at reducing carbon emissions and bolstering the use of sustainable energy. 

Þóroddur Bjarnason, Professor of Sociology at the University of Iceland.

• He holds a MA from the University of Essex and a PhD from the University of Notre Dame. He has taken part in the development and implementation of regional policies in Iceland in various capacities. His research interests include the regional impact of higher education, patterns of inclusion and exclusion, technological changes and regional development, and the causes and consequences of geographical mobility. His recent publications include contributions to Acta Sociologica, Journal of Rural Studies, Population, Space and Place, and Sociologia Ruralis.