Norsk Elektroteknisk Komite

Mustads vei 1

Registration and networking will take place at NEK’s offices in Oslo—home to much of Norway’s standardization work. Arrive a little early to pick up your badge, meet ther fellow Nordic Young Professionals again, and connect with more people who work at the intersection of industry, technology, and regulation. It’s a great chance to get a feel for the place where standards move from ideas to practical tools that enable cooperation, trade, and innovation.

Norsk Elektroteknisk Komite

Sigmund Eng

Introduction to the Nordic standardization cooperation and objectives of the NYPW. 

Norsk Elektroteknisk Komite

Leif T. Aanensen

Standards are the quiet infrastructure of global trade: they make products compatible, data trustworthy, and compliance scalable across borders. In this talk, “Standards in Global Trade,” I’ll show how standards turn big ideas into solutions that can actually be adopted—reducing friction for businesses and end users, accelerating market access, and building the confidence needed to scale internationally. Using a light 90/10 lens—where the “10% breakthrough” only succeeds when it rests on a strong “90% foundation” of interoperability, safety, and usability—we’ll explore how young professionals can use standards as a practical career tool to drive innovation, sustainability, and real impact in a connected world.

Leif T. Aanensen is the Managing Director of the Norsk Elektroteknisk Komite and previously served as Head of Department and Secretary for NK 64. He holds a Master of Science in Engineering from NTNU, along with an MBA in administration and management from Handelshøyskolen i Bergen. After beginning his career in consulting, he built extensive experience in public administration and brings over 25 years of leadership experience, with technology consistently at the core of his work.

House Of Knowledge

Magnus Hakvåg

Our participants will play our new Standardization Game!

Magnus Hakvåg is the CEO of House of Knowledge, a firm specializing in intellectual property (IP), innovation, and standardization. With over 20 years of international experience, he has become a recognized expert in strategic IP management, innovation training, and standardization work, including contributions to global initiatives like ISO and the OECD Oslo Manual. Hakvåg holds an M.Sc. in Civil Engineering from NTNU and has led the development of innovative educational tools such as serious games and e-learning solutions designed to enhance organizational understanding of IP and competitiveness.

Former Simens Energy

Thomas Høven

Thomas will share a practical perspective on why many companies choose to contribute to and adopt standards instead of building fully proprietary solutions. The talk will focus on standards as a way to lower business risk—by reducing uncertainty in compliance, improving predictability for procurement and partnerships, and avoiding lock-in to fragile “single-vendor” approaches.

It will also highlight how standards increase customer confidence by making requirements clearer, improving transparency, and supporting consistent quality and safety expectations. Finally, the speaker will connect standards to interoperability and investment: when solutions work smoothly with existing systems and widely used interfaces, adoption becomes easier, integration costs fall, and it is often simpler to justify and trigger investments across organizations and markets.

Groupwork

Group discussion

In small groups, choose one realistic case (your own or a common example: cross-border rollout, partner integration, regulated market entry, or platform/ecosystem growth). Discuss the trade-offs between standard-based and proprietary approaches, using these prompts:

• Risk: What risks are reduced or introduced (compliance, security, delivery, supplier dependency, reputational risk)?
• Customer trust: What would make customers feel safer or more confident, and why?
• Interoperability: Who must you integrate with, and what breaks if you don’t?
• Investment threshold: What makes it easier/harder for decision-makers to invest (cost, time, proof, scalability)?
  End by agreeing on one clear recommendation (what you would do first) and two measurable indicators of success.

Presenters from each gruop

Presentation

Each group will present a short, structured summary to compare perspectives across sectors and countries. Aim for 2–3 minutes per group:

1. Scenario & stakeholders
2. Your recommendation
3. Expected outcomes

NEMKO Group AS

Håkon Rem

In “Strategic Use of Standards,” Håkon Rem will take you inside the company playbook: how standards are used deliberately to speed up procurement and partnerships, de-risk compliance, shape ecosystems, and create competitive advantage—whether you’re scaling a product, entering new markets, or building trust with customers and regulators.

This pairs with “Standards in Global Trade” by shifting the lens from the system level to the firm level. This session looks at how standards enable cross-border interoperability and adoption at scale; this one shows how organizations turn that foundation into strategy, decisions, and measurable outcomes—making it especially relevant if you’re early in your career and want practical levers you can use in real projects. The lectures also provide insigth in the IEC conformity assessment schemes and how they contribute to marked access around the world.

Groupwork

Group discussions

Group discussion (20 min): In groups, choose one realistic project (e.g., launching in a new market, integrating with partners, or selling via procurement) and identify 2–3 standards that could help. Discuss how you would use these standards strategically to (1) speed up procurement/partnerships, (2) reduce compliance risk, and (3) enable cross-border scale or interoperability—and agree on one clear recommendation for what to adopt first. Define 1–2 simple success metrics (e.g., shorter contracting time, faster onboarding, fewer audit issues) and be ready to share them.

Presenters from each gruop

Presentation

Each group will present a short, structured summary to compare perspectives across sectors and countries. Aim for 2–3 minutes per group:

1. Scenario & stakeholders
2. Your recommendation
3. Expected outcomes

Norsk Elektroteknisk Komite

Sigmund Eng

Group reflections, key takeaways, and closing statements by NEK.