GGI Nordic-Baltic Meeting & GGI EasyMeet
04 - 06 September 2025Helsinki, Finland
It was a beautiful September day in Helsinki when we kicked off the event with the Young ITPG session in the Hotel Maria, possibly one of the nicest hotels we've ever stayed at. Seemed a little bit sad that we had to sit indoors while the sun shone brightly through the glass but once the meeting started, it was really terrific to see the passion the presenters brought to each of their topics.
Newly appointed leaders of the YITPG Hannah Nelson (USTAXFS, Switzerland) and Piotr Prokocki (Penteris, Poland) led the meeting, with contributions from Pauli Simolin (Rantalainen Accounting Services Ltd, Finland), Norbert Tulak (NTAX, Poland), Samuele Servino (Studio Sistini-Grossi, Italy), Garvin Singh (Benefitax GmbH, Germany), and Rushil Khakar and Roshan (Lawrence Grant, UK).
During this EasyMeet, we decided also to run a combined Young Corporate+Tech & Young LDR PG meeting, and this session was led by Robert Dorneanu (Soroker Agmon Nordman Riba, Israel).
The Welcome Reception & Dinner brought all participants – EasyMeet and Nordic-Baltic Meeting – together. With just over 50 participants signed up for the weekend, the intimate setting allowed for plenty of mixing … and we particularly love the fact that you get to talk to the same person more than once over the course of the weekend, which, of course, can happen at our larger events. You could feel the joy as those who had attended last year's event met with each other, and the slight apprehension of any new attendees didn't last long once they caught the familial and friendly atmosphere of the group.
We had two excellent keynotes on Friday morning at our combined session.
Firstly, Nils Torvalds talked about “The Silent Counter-Revolution”. Looking at the European leaders’ submission to Donald Trump’s dictates is of the dimensions of the Munich Agreement and still echoes through the silent corridors of power. In an increasingly tense global situation, they have been forced into submission by a narcissistic bully. The consequences are difficult to grasp, but the likelihood that the mistakes can be corrected after the next presidential election is not high...
Nils' insights were very interesting. For most of his life, he has been a journalist. It’s – at least partly – in his DNA: his father was one, as was his maternal grandfather. From the very beginning in 1966, when he got a job at the Finnish News Agency, he spent his years at the foreign desk. That led later to his career as a journalist in the Finnish Broadcasting Company, spending time as a correspondent in Moscow (1995-2000) and Washington, DC (2000-2004). After retiring in 2008, he spent twelve years in the European Parliament (2012-2024). Now he spends his time reading European history and philosophy, as well as writing columns and and a book about the challenges Europe now has (and there are plenty of them).
Fun fact: Nils happened to be on an assignment in New York on 9/11 and took a taxi down to Ground Zero. He also happened to be in Peking when the students occupied Tiananmen Square. After that, his friends usually asked where he was going – so as to know where not to go.)
Our second keynote, Alistair Starling is a former UK Diplomat, Foreign & Commonwealth Office, FCO, where he assisted companies to trade and invest internationally for 10 years. Alistair is the Founder of the Gov Rels consultancy European Diplomats, Co-founder of Fraqmented co-working hub Tallinn and Co-Founder of the AI consultancy Cambridge Global Knowledge Nexus. He is multilingual, and levers his 20-year private sector/10-year government sector, Business Development, Design and Innovation experience to achieve results within 1st, 2nd and 3rd sector organisations. Alistair's native language is English, he is also fluent in Italian and German, plus intermediate French. Alistair worked in the founding teams of other start-ups, in the recruitment sector (The Cambridge Hub), internet design sector (IconMedialab), and therefore understands the pace and focus of the commercial sector. Alistair led complex government sales development across Europe and Africa for a world famous brand - Cambridge. He has two Master degrees (one from the University of Cambridge), and an Undergraduate Degree in the creative industries. Alistair is a confident public speaker, has presented numerous times on TV, and fosters active communities of contacts across Europe.
Alistair's presentation covered “Business Diplomacy: A Symphony of Critical Thinking, Business Acumen, and AI Readiness”. With personal examples from his career, he showed how important it is to develop top-level diplomacy skills in the business environment.
Member presentations followed our keynotes, with Piotr Prokocki (Penteris, Poland) talking about “Home Office & PE: What's the Risk?" and Ulvi Tallo (Grow Finance OÜ, Estonia) discussing “Shaping a Safer Cyberspace”.
After lunch, the groups split once again and the Young Real Estate Practice Group, led by Dr Jörn Bosse (FPS, Germany) and Piotr Prokocki (Penteris, Poland) was fully packed. During this time, the Nordic-Baltic session continued on with Cedric Frostdahl (Rantalainen, Finland) sharing his views on why the accounting industry is consolidating and what the key ingredients are for a good acquisition.
In the afternoon, Rantalainen offered a fantastic gin-tasting session in their office. But only after the group walked through the centre of Helsinki, and got to see the beautiful public library that was not just visually stunning but also incredibly useful to the inhabitants of the city.
Dinner then in the evening at the highly-rated Restaurant Salutorget. Delicious Swedish food, but at least we were keeping with the Nordic theme as well as a historic one (as Finland was part of Sweden in a previous era).
Before you knew it, it was the end of the weekend and time to go home. The stragglers who decided to spend some extra time on Saturday in Helsinki were rewarded with a personalised tour of Suomenlinna island, led by host Albert Wikstrom (Rantalainen, Finland), including a visit to one of Europe's largest sea fortresses. Lucky Albert, he got married on the island several years ago! A final dinner then at Meripaviljonki brought a fitting end to the event.
