Keynote speakers (2016)
Prof. dr. Aino Kianto, Lappeenranta University of Technology (Finland)
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AND THEIR IMPACT ON ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE.
Aino Kianto is a Professor of Knowledge Management in the School of Business and Management at Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland. She also is the academic director for the Master Programme in Knowledge Management and Leadership. Her teaching and research focus on knowledge management, intellectual capital, creativity, innovation and organizational renewal. She has authored and co-authored more than 100 academic articles, papers, books and book chapters related with these topics. She has been called one of the most prominent academic figures in the field of intellectual capital and has received several awards for research excellence, e.g. 4 of her papers have been recognized with the Emerald Literati awards, and 3 with conference best paper awards. She has been involved in a responsible role in 9 different research projects dealing with knowledge management, intellectual capital and innovation, e.g. she was the leader of the project Intellectual Capital and Value Creation where knowledge-based value creation was examined across 6 countries. Professor Kianto’s expertise spans outside the academia: e.g. she is the inventor of the ORCI-method, used for assessing and developing organizational renewal capability in more than 100 organizations across Europe, has worked with the Future committee of the Finnish parliament and regularly lectures for practitioners.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Greg Simons, Centre for Asymmetric Threat Studies at the Swedish National Defence College in Stockholm (Sweden)
TECHNOLOGY, JOURNALISM AND POLITICS: THE CURRENT STATE OF INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Associate Professor Greg Simons is a senior researcher at the Centre for Asymmetric Threat Studies (CATS) at the Swedish National Defence College in Stockholm, Sweden, a senior researcher at the Uppsala Centre for Russian and Eurasian Studies (UCRS) at Uppsala University and a lecturer at the Department of Communication Science at Turiba University in Riga, Latvia. He is an associated researcher at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs. His research interests include: Russian mass media and journalism; crisis management communications; politics, information and armed conflict; public diplomacy and soft power; and the Russian Orthodox Church. Dr Simons is the author/editor of numerous refereed articles, chapters and books. He has also engaged in two assignments for the Council of Europe as a; General Rapporteur for Council of Europe Conference in Strasbourg on Safeguarding free speech and the right to information: media in times of crisis in October 2005; and as a keynote speaker at the Joint Seminar of the Baku and Yerevan Schools of Political Studies (organised by Council of Europe and Folke Bernadotte Academy), Mass Media as a Tool for Creation of Bridge of Mutual Trust in December 2007.