SuomiAreena is an annual public debate forum held in

Pori ) , website www.pori.fi Pori (; sv, Björneborg ) is a city and municipality on the west coast of Finland. The city is located some from the Gulf of Bothnia, on the estuary of the Kokemäki River, west of Tampere, north of Turku and north-w ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. It is organized by City of Pori and Finnish TV-channel

MTV3 MTV3 ( fi, MTV Kolme, sv, MTV Tre) is a Finnish commercial television station. It had the biggest audience share of all Finnish TV channels until Yle TV1 (from Yle) took the lead. The letters MTV stand for Mainos-TV (literally "Advertisement ...

. The forum was first arranged in 2006 and it is inspired by Swedish

Almedalen Week The Almedalen Week (''Almedalsveckan'', also known as Politician's Week in Almedalen, ''Politikerveckan i Almedalen'') is an annual event taking place in week 26 in and around Almedalen, a park in the city of Visby on the Swedish island Gotland. ...

Visby Visby () is an urban area in Sweden and the seat of Gotland Municipality in Gotland County on the island of Gotland with 24,330 inhabitants . Visby is also the episcopal see for the Diocese of Visby. The Hanseatic city of Visby is arguably th ...

. SuomiAreena is held in July, simultaneously with

Pori Jazz Pori Jazz is a large international jazz festival, held annually during the month of July in the coastal city of Pori (a population of 82,809 in January 2010), Finland. It is one of the oldest and best known jazz festivals in Europe, having bee ...

which is one of the largest

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

festivals in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. 2013 SuomiAreena consists of 125 events and more than 600 debaters and speakers. The events take place in different locations around the city. They are held in cafés, restaurants, parks, theaters, outdoor stages and other suitable places. Topics of the panel discussions are related with various subjects like politics, society, economics, culture and religion. Along with Finnish

activists Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

, politicians and other influential people SuomiAreena has a large number of international participants. Most notable international guests have been the President of the European Commission

José Manuel Barroso José Manuel Durão Barroso (; born 23 March 1956) is a Portuguese politician and university teacher, currently serving as non-executive chairman of Goldman Sachs International. He previously served as the 11th president of the European Commi ...

(2006), president of the European Central Bank

Jean-Claude Trichet Jean-Claude Trichet (; born 20 December 1942) is a French economist who served as President of the European Central Bank from 2003 to 2011. Previous to his assumption of the presidency he served as Governor of the Bank of France from 1993 to 2003 ...

(2007), Director General of the

Al Jazeera Al Jazeera ( ar, الجزيرة, translit-std=DIN, translit=al-jazīrah, , "The Island") is a state-owned Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazeera ...

Network

Wadah Khanfar Wadah Khanfar ( ar, وضاح خنفر; born 20 September 1968) is the President of Al Sharq Forum, an independent network dedicated to developing long-term strategies for political development, social justice and economic prosperity of the peopl ...

(2009), Secretary-General of the United Nations

Ban Ki-moon Ban Ki-moon (; ; born 13 June 1944) is a South Korean politician and diplomat who served as the eighth secretary-general of the United Nations between 2007 and 2016. Prior to his appointment as secretary-general, Ban was his country's Minister ...

(2011) and Nobel Peace Laureate

Tawakkol Karman Tawakkol Abdel-Salam Khalid Karman ( ar, توكل عبد السلام خالد كرمان, Tawakkul 'Abd us-Salām Khalid Karmān; also romanized ''Tawakul'', ''Tawakel''; born 7 February 1979) is a Yemeni Nobel Laureate, journalist, politician ...

(2012).

References

External links

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SuomiAreena Official Homepage
{{Finland-poli-stub Political congresses Politics of Finland Annual events in Finland Pori Summer events in Finland