Doors to Nobel Hall at Noblessner Foundry open at 9:00.
Make sure to arrive on time if you wish to claim your Latitude59 2025 badge on site as well.
Kickoff of Thinking in Billions 2025 and Latitude59 Day 0 by Sandra Särav-Tammus, the Deputy Secretary General for Economy and Innovation at Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications of Estonia, followed by the official welcome by Erkki Keldo, the Minister of Economic Affairs of Estonia.
Do we really need to choose between focusing on national security and fostering innovation, or are they inherently connected, with one deeply embedded in the other? At a time when urgency is at its highest, particularly along NATO’s Eastern Flank, and we already recognize the need to accelerate defence innovation by at least a factor of ten, the real question is: what practical pathways can we pursue in the near term to achieve this?
Lt. Gen. Dr. Dennis Gyllensporre
Board Chair at NATO DIANA
Raul Rikk
Milrem Robotics
Ivo Peets
Estonian Defense Forces
Moderated by Kadri Tammai
NATO DIANA
Building Effective Defense Tech Sandboxes tackles the critical challenges in establishing testing environments for drones and other UAVs in defense technology. Legal barriers and public concerns significantly complicate testing procedures without robust frameworks and risk management protocols. Our discussion explores key questions: How can we create more effective defense tech testing grounds? What mechanisms would improve public-private collaboration in this domain? We’ll examine successful models from multiple countries, offering insights beyond Estonia’s experience alone. Experts will identify current obstacles while presenting practical pathways forward, addressing both regulatory hurdles and implementation strategies that balance innovation with necessary oversight.
James Acuna
Former CIA Operations Officer, Baltic Ghost Wing Center
Kateryna Chaikivska
Brave1
Aimar Aviste
Threod Systems
Thomas Markert
Airhub
Moderated by Rasmus Basilier
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland / NATO DIANA Finland
