2018 in Belgrade

A forum for democracy, equal opportunities and digitization

The 12th  Freja Forum the 9-11 November in National Assembly, Belgrade is a unique story of voluntary work of many grassroots in Western Balkans and Turkey to support democracy and equal opportunities.
The subject of the Forum this year was Democracy, Equal opportunities and our digital future.
Thanks to all participants, speakers and voluntary working people who make the forum possible.

The result of the Freja Forum 2018 is increasing knowledge of how digitalisation effects democracy and equal opportunities. Projects, political initiatives and research are discussed after inspiration from this year´s Freja Forum.
The discussions focused on challenges in the digital world and how it has and will affect democracy and human behavior with tools such as robotization and artificial intelligence. The Forum explored practical methods for preparing non-profit organizations and other actors for the digital future with the aim of developing efficient organisations in the non-profit sector to become active, competent and constructive players in future digital society.
The theme for the forum this year was a success according to the need of knowledge in many organisations concerning digitalisation.
The participants  had a bigger part of young people than earlier years. One of the expert panels had an average age of 17 years. The forum shows the importance of a clever combination between technology and democracy to build a democratic society.

The world’s youngest expert panel?

An expert panel discussed about how they use digital media and how they think they will use the network in the future, The average of age of the experts was 17 years.
It consisted of following panel members: Ms Lara Pantić, high school student, Belgrade, Serbia. Mr Adam Pelling, student, Uppsala, Sweden. Ms Adisa Hasanbašic, student, Faculty of Technology University Tuzla, Bosnia&Herzegovina. Mr Martin Vahermägi, student, Estonian school, Stockholm, Sweden.

Voices from Freja Forum 2018

“First time participation. It was an excellent experience in all respects. The speakers were of a very high quality. The ‘coaching’ was done well and the overall atmosphere was excellent, as was the interaction between most of the participants.”
Carl Thomas Grunert, Former Head of Unit European Parliament
“As MP in the Albanian Parliament, I can see major benefits of the contacts I get by joining the Freja Forum. It is especially about the contacts I received with civil society organizations that participated in the forum. It feels like an advantage to me in my role as MP.”
Klotilda Ferhati, Member of the Albanian Parliament
“The contact network I get through Freja Forum is indispensable for me as a volunteer worker in a CSO.”
“Freja Forum is the only opportunity I can meet as many different organizations from across the Western Balkans.”
“I can´t believe how much I learned about digitalization through the forum.”
“I get faith in democracy through Freja Forum.”
“Learning from similarities and differences between us working in voluntary organizations is important.”