CFA Society Finland’s Forecast Dinner was held on the eve before Valentine’s day, in the nostalgic Restaurant Sipuli. Attending 45 people were celebrating the annual dinner forecasting the coming year as well as looking back at the previous one. We were delighted that there was a record number of participants in this flagship event of the year.

*Päivi Nerg giving a presentation on AI.*

During the evening the audience had the pleasure of listening to presentations from top notch professionals. After board chair Miia Hukari welcomed everybody, Finnish Finance Ministry’s Permanent Under-Secretary for Governance Policy Päivi Nerg spoke on the ethical considerations of AI and the use of technology in today’s society, especially in the public sector. Although it is difficult to predict in detail how technology will shape itself in the future it is important to stay ahead of the curve so our government and society can make the most of the technological advances, and at the same time remain ethical and just.

After the main course Swedbank’s Chief Economist Heidi Schauman and CFA Society Finland’s Board Member Matti Ilmanen recapped last year’s main financial events as well as the outlook for the year 2020. They discussed 2019's strong returns across asset classes, central bank policy actions as well as the balance sheet expansion, optimism on US-China trade agreement, and the underlying drivers of the global recovery.

They also outlined potential catalysts for a market pause including possible change in Fed policy and US elections as well as the emergence of the nCoV Coronavirus.

*Markku Leppälä, CFA winning the Forecaster of the year award.*

After an exciting countdown as to who had best foreseen the market movements last year, CFA Society Finland was happy to give the Forecaster of the year 2019 award to Markku Leppälä, CFA. We will be excited to see who will be the best forecaster of this year as the guests took part in a digital questionnaire predicting the pivotal market numbers for a year that is sure to be very eventful.

Miikka Hautamäki, CFA. — *Miikka Hautamäki, CFA*.

There has been a tradition to give out the CFA Society Finland volunteer of the year award at the Forecast dinner as well. This is given to a society member who has put in extra efforts as an active member of the Society. This year the award was handed out to board member Miikka Hautamäki, CFA for leading the work on creating and putting up a new website for CFA Society Finland.

We congratulate the winners of the evening and a big thank you to all the attendees!