Cultural leadership in focus at Young Ambassadors seminar 5

January 12, 2012

The Young Ambassadors with Managing Director Tom Remlov and DNB CSR Director Dag Arne Kristensen.

The speakers of the day: Tom Remlov, Dag Arne Kristensen and Anne Aasheim.

By Young Ambassador Maja Glomnes

On January 12, 2012, the Norwegian Opera and Ballet hosted the fifth seminar of the Young Ambassadors 2011/2012 program. The topic of the day was culture, and the Young Ambassadors were fortunate to have three knowledgeable presenters who shared their thoughts on culture, business and leadership.

The first speaker on the agenda was Tom Remlov, the Managing Director of the Norwegian Opera and Ballet. He shared some of his own experiences of being a leader, and he talked about different aspects of working at the opera. He told us about the risks of being involved with culture, that every detail is important and that all the people who are involved have to do their jobs. If they don’t, the audience will be disappointed. The underlying motive for art is acknowledgment, he told us. And Remlov’s job is to appreciate talents, also the ones you don’t find on the stage.

Remlov also emphasized what a fantastic job the architectural firm Snøhetta did with the opera building, and how unique this building is in the world. Opera buildings are typically solemn and pompous, but Oslo’s is constructed so that we can walk on it and most importantly; feel a connection to the building. He said it was a great wish making it available to the public. In addition, the building is made in a way that makes it easy for everyone who works in the building to find the center of the building - the stage. Moreover, the Norwegian Opera and Ballet gets inspiration from other countries because of all the nations which are represented at the opera. We also learned about the great collaboration between the opera and the business community.

The second speaker was Dag Arne Kristensen, the Director of Corporate Social Responsibility at Den Norske Bank (DNB), a company which is represented in more than 22 countries and where every second Norwegian is a customer. He told us about the cooperation between business and culture, and how the two complement each other. We got to hear DnB NOR’s story, which has gone from logos on headbands to more sophisticated sponsorship agreements. Kristensen explained that what is most important for a sponsor will depend of the company vision, and that the vision may change over time. Furthermore, he gave us the reasons why they are doing sponsorships, and explained how important it is for good sponsorship partners to have similar values and goals, and that the exchange of expertise helps both parties. In the end he gave us an important advice; do not forget to work on self- development.

The last speaker of this seminar was Anne Aasheim, the Director of the Norwegian Arts Council. She told us about cultural politics, and gave us an insight into her job platform. It was very interesting to get to know the roles of artists, the Arts Council and the Norwegian politicians within culture, and Aasheim explained why culture is so important in today’s society.

As a conclusion, I think we all learned more about culture and its importance both in Norway and in the rest of the world. The Young Ambassadors had many questions to all the speakers, and there is no doubt that we got both inspired and engaged.

We want to give a special thanks to all the three speakers, and The Norwegian Opera and Ballet for hosting this seminar.