2020 - When Everything Went Digital

board members: Matti Lötjönen (president), Aarni Rantanen (vice-president), Amanda Häkkinen, Maisa Kankkunen, Yannika Rönnqvist, Alexandra Salo, Martin Örn

This year, the novel coronavirus changed everything. Things were still normal in January when we held the National Session in Tampere, with hotel and hostel accommodation for all participants! The session was under the patronage of Tarja Halonen, Heidi Hautala and Iiris Suomela, all of whom joined to give speeches at our opening and closing ceremonies. During a short coffee break, president Halonen stressed the importance of activating and keeping in touch with our alumni.

Our first International Forum, Lapland 2020, was supposed to take place in early April. However, as COVID-19 was declared a pandemic in March, we had to postpone the session with only two weeks’ notice. Fortunately, our

sponsors and partners supported us with the decision, and we did not suffer any major financial consequences. As the world locked down, sessions quickly moved online to compensate for all the cancelled events around Europe. Our first Digital Session, head-organised by Juliana Wong, took place in August. This 3-day event unknowingly prepared the organisation for the year to come.

The Regional Sessions, named by their planned locations Turku, Kuopio, Jyväskylä and Oulu, took place online using Zoom and Discord. Our main objective was not to lose the essence of Finnish sessions, so we put together online sauna parties and game nights. Some organisers of Turku RS were able to gather in an Airbnb, but aside from that, all delegates and officials were online. The digital sessions were an overall success and proof of our ability to overcome any challenge. Nearly all board meetings were also held on Zoom, as many board members lived abroad and travel inside Finland was discouraged.

The lighter pandemic restrictions during summer allowed for some in-person activities such as a picnic in Kaisaniemi park. We also attended Turun Eurooppa-foorumi where we organised an EU speed-dating event with Turun Eurooppanuoret. The participants got to meet EU employees including our former president Laura Uusitalo who worked as a Blue Book trainee at the European Commission. Finally, the Officials’ Training gathered 23 trainees to Ruissalo in Turku. This was a “hybrid” training, as Lika Abramishvili from the Governing Body delivered her module from Georgia via Zoom.