The discussion of the seminar was based on the short presentations by four experts on the fields of international (geo)politics and inter-governmental cooperation; international law, environmental law and indigenous peoples; climate change and (international) arctic science; and natural resources and economics. Most of the time was, however, allocated for open discussion (according to the main aim of the NRF), which was lively and plenty much due to the high expertise of the audience. This kind of hoc-based expert seminar was organized first time.

The experts of the seminar were Adjunct Professor, and the Chairman of the NRF Steering Committee, Lassi Heininen and Research Professor Timo Koivurova from University of Lapland; and Director Kari Laine and Docent Ilmo Mäenpää from the Thule Institute at the University of Oulu. The seminar was opened by Under Secretary of State Markus Lyra and the moderator was Counsellor Jyrki Kallio from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland.