The Steering Committee (STE) is responsible for the overall planning and execution of Aarhus Symposium. This includes a wide range of tasks such as choosing the organisers for a given year, facilitating intergroup collaboration, developing the culture of the organisation, communicating with external supporting organisations, and reporting monthly to the Executive Board.

Niels-christian f. sloth

Member of the Steering Committee

jens-peder thomsen

Member of the Steering Committee

The Programme Group (PG) is responsible for developing the engaging and inspirational programmes of Aarhus Symposium and Aarhus Symposium Focus. The primary task of the PG is to shortlist and invite speakers from all over the world to participate in Aarhus Symposium and Aarhus Symposium Focus. At the same time, the PG carefully chooses the themes that are to be explored at the events, and the group ensures that the speakers, dialogues, and debates effectively represent the selected themes.

The Marketing Group’s (MG) primary task is to promote the Aarhus Symposium brand. To do so, the MG uses a wide range of online communication channels and offline initiatives, shedding light on both the events, speakers, topics, and partners. Hereby, the MG is key to ensuring a well-prepared audience before the events as well as media coverage afterwards.

The strategies developed by the MG function as the guidelines for all external communication on the operational level; including, social media, press, prints, video material, etc. The MG works closely together with our exlusive Marketing Partner, GroupM.

Furthermore, the MG works as the design team for the official website, ensuring a smooth user experience.

Business Relations (BR) is responsible for obtaining the funding for Aarhus Symposium through corporate partnerships and sponsorships. The BR does so by negotiating with potential corporate partners to establish lasting relations, after which the group ensures the execution of the agreements.

The Essentials Group (EG) is in charge of planning and executing the events of Aarhus Symposium. This includes a wide range of tasks; from creating the master plans and designing the set-up to securing product sponsorships and delicious catering.

Through its work, the EG seeks to generate as much value for the participating students as possible while ensuring a well-structured execution of the events. In doing so, the EG works in close collaboration with the other groups of Aarhus Symposium, and the group ties the work of the entire organisation into the final products, Aarhus Symposium and Aarhus Symposium Focus being well planned and executed.

University Alliances (UA) is responsible for promoting Aarhus Symposium among curious and ambitious students outside Aarhus University. This is primarily accomplished through close collaboration with other student organisations or career offices rooted on the respective universities.

UA was established in 2015 as a new initiative in the strive towards making Aarhus Symposium a national platform for dialogue between students and society’s key decision makers, and their goal is to develop a highly international outlook.

The IT Group’s (IT) primary responsibility is to oversee and support the IT systems of Aarhus Symposium. This involves managing the participant and essay management system, ensuring that e-mail communication and internal file sharing is running efficiently, and providing general IT support to the various organising groups.

The Finance Group (FG) manages the finances of the organisation and is responsible for producing the annual report. The group’s responsibilities include drawing up the budget for the organisation, handling all payments to and from the organisation, and doing all the accounting. In producing the annual report, the FG works closely together with Deloitte; one of the world’s largest accounting firms and the auditing partner of Aarhus Symposium.

Business Development (BD) is a new innovator role of Aarhus Symposium, with the purpose to shape and guide the organisation in new inspiring directions. 

The group’s overall objective is to create space for change and to secure a foundation for new initiatives to be made. To fulfil this achievement, the group questions the integrity of how things are done and whether these could be done smarter, better, and more efficient.