On the 7^th of May, NOVE’s Bubbling Up held its fifth event at NOVE’s offices in the Hôtel Tassel. With the EU elections less than a month away, the Bubblers took out their crystal balls to hypothesize on the “megatrends” shaping Europe. How might Europe look in thirty years’ time — and what role will the EU play?

This edition featured Mr. Asen Dimitrov (@azdimitrov) from the European Political Strategy Centre, who highlighted some aspects of the Commission’s latest report about the “Global Trends to 2030”. He underlined climate change, demography and urbanisation as the three megatrends of future. Then, Mr. Lukas Ellenrieder (LinkedIn), a policy analyst from Airbus, gave Bubblers insights into one of the most exciting industrial sectors in Europe. While he agreed that demographics and climate change are key megatrends of the future, but also added technological development to the list.

The event, attended by approximately eighty young professionals, included various activities forecasting the future. Bubblers were involved in a European geography predicting game, a European budget wish-list for 2050, and the now classic Bubbling Up activity: “fact or fake” cards to test our guests’ knowledge on the subject.

The Bubbling Up team would like to thank our speakers Asen Dimitrov and Lukas Ellenrieder and all attendees for participating in this fifth successful event. The team looks forward to seeing you again at the next edition which will take place after the summer of 2019.

Organised by NOVE, Bubbling Up is a regular gathering of young professionals in public policy to exchange ideas on topical issues of the day. Bubbling Up’s events are based on the idea that it is not in the conference hall that our minds are made up, but at the bar or the buffet table – in conversation with our peers.