It is strange how concepts and brands come about, becoming vivid images in people's minds and worldviews. "Tallberg" - as Tällberg Foundation and Tällberg Forum have come to be known - has for many, many people around the world become a name that stands for dialogue, freedom, independence, beauty, network - but above all for learning about the whole of our economic, ecological and political realities evolve.

Tällberg Foundation's fundamental question has for many years been "How on earth can we live together - We humans and we with nature?" It is becoming increasingly important to provide concrete answers to that question as peoples’ mutual dependencies become more densely entwined. The process of globalization has certainly not come to the end of the road.

We have critically difficult issues to agree on: energy supply, financial markets, jobs, elderly care, migration. National policies must be discussed, examined and defined in their wider international economic and ecological contexts. Tällberg Foundation foresaw this development early on and created an arena for the global conversation in the village of Tällberg.

Now, more and more countries and places wish to welcome us. We now do about one "Tallberg Workshop" per month at various locations around the world. We have also received many requests to do a complete Tallberg Forum in such diverse places as Ecuador, United States, South Africa.

Tällberg Foundation has now decided for the first time to locate to a Forum outside the village of Tällberg and municipality limits. For 2011 we have chosen to locate a Winter Tällberg Forum on 10-12 February in Voksenåsen, just above Oslo. Voksenåsen was the Norwegian people's national gift to Sweden in return for aid during World War II. The Summer Forum will take place in Sigtuna on June 29-3 July, Sweden's oldest town on the shores of Lake Mälaren, north of Stockholm at the end of June. The theme for the 2011 Forum's work is "How can we agree to agree?", with emphasis on the economy, energy and environmental equation. The world needs to get global agreements and solutions in a hurry.

But even if we take a Forum break from Tällberg and Dalarna, we will have many activities during in the region this year. Our plans include an autumn Tällberg Forum in conjunction with Teknikdalen for high school students and teachers as a follow up to this year's successful Rework the World Conference which brought together 1700 participants from 125 countries. It is especially important that the new generation become entrepreneurs in this new era of increasingly demanding conditions.

Tällberg is a place where heaven and earth meet. It is a place dedicated to reflection and inspiration. May it never corrupt itself into a conventional tourist destination, like all the rest.

The Tällberg Foundation has contributed to transforming the place of "Tällberg" into an idea, a concept "Tallberg," which stands for a conversation’s relevance to solving problems and seeing opportunities in the global / local community.

The place Tällberg is where it is, but the idea Tallberg has found a far wider location.

Bo Ekman
2010-10-15