2025 East meets West Conference - Advocacy Panel

2025 East meets West Conference RecordingsEntrepreneurship, finally recognising their unexploited potential The major part of the economical business activity in Europe is the daily work of millions of smaller businesses, often not in the spotlight but key to our economical welfare. We have too long tried, often with limited success, to engage this major economical power to push the DEI values. Now the time has come to turn these motivated people to become a group of inspirational and impactful role models. We look on ways we can use this unexploited business power and turn the present negative wave into a commercial success. Also here its essential to cooperate within their sector and join forces to become a real economical power that will continue to support the LGBTIQ community.Panelists:- Lushentha Naidoo, Managing Director at ESDP, The Netherlands- Giovanna Ceccherini, Secretary General at ELTA - European LGBTQ+ Travel Alliance, Italy- Vit Lichtenstein, Co-founder and General Manager at mypaperwork.ai, Austria- Roger Holzapfel-Barta, CEO at Hotel Deutsche Eiche, Germanymoderated by: Tina Ličková, Researcher & Podcaster, Slovakia

2025 East meets West Conference RecordingsAdvocacies, showing their ability to adjust their work to handle new and unexpected challengesWe have in our region of Central & Eastern Europe a large number of civil society groups that have been the motor of the continuous improvements we have seen in the last decades for the local LGBTIQ communities. But these groups are now faced with a question: will they be able to continue their work facing huge challenges. We have invited 4 professionals that will discuss with you possible answers to such pressing questions. It will inspire all of you to overcome the challenges you are confronted with in your daily work. Panelists: - Monika Haider, Founder of Diversity Awards Austria- Yves Aerts Jacobs, Executive Director at çavaria, Belgium- Goran Miletic, Senior Advisor to the Executive Director, Civil Rights Defenders, Sweden- Madrid Bednár, Founder of Dragrift Slovakia, Slovakiamoderated by Laco Hudec-Šubrt, Founder at VecizVeci and performer, Austria

2025 East meets West Conference RecordingCorporates, showing their true colors without airs and graces or any pretense Until recently many corporates have been major supporters of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, not in the least in the funding of civil society groups world wide. Internally, they included these DEI values in the DNA of their companies. The recent US legislation and legal decisions have forced them to re-evaluate these policies. Some just dropped their DEI values, others reaffirmed their DEI beliefs and developed new activities that they consider to allow them to continue their support. We will focus on these corporate players and how they have reacted to the new situation. You will hear from corporate insiders how these key players have not forsaken their existing DEI focus and try to continue to keep playing their major role. Panelists:- Elisabeth Dal-Bianco, Communication Operations Manager at IKEA, Austria- Réka R. Artner, Head of BOLD Community at Austrian Federal Economic Chamber, Austria- Hannes Mösenbacher, Chief Risk Officer (CRO) at Raiffeisen Bank International, Austria- Matt Foster, Director of Inclusion and Impact at Ogilvy, The United Kingdommoderated by Katja Kreiner, People Management at RDB, Austria

2025 East meets West Conference RecordingKEYNOTE: Taking Our Destiny in Our Own HandsWhen we undergo important changes in our existing working environment, we might get ‘lost in space’. In that case it is very inspiring to listen to people who can explain the more underlying strategic issues of these social changes. East meets West is happy and proud to have on the Conference a famous, internationally recognised authority on the LGBTIQ topics in business and society... and someone who actively writes for eg. Financial Times Deutschland.Jens Schadendorf, Economist, LGBTQ Researcher and Bestselling-Author, Germany

2025 East meets West RecordingThe Look and the Look... this time “revisited”: The status of the LGBTIQ Communities in the CEE region and together looking for fitting answers.Instead of Ludo's classic "The Look from the East and the Look from the West" we break here this traditional approach, and we focus on people representing key areas that are under high pressure from a violent and loud anti-LGBTIQ opposition. As the panel members all live in, or have strong ties with the discussed locations, they will offer you an objective view on the situation in their country. This will allow you to discover the best possible strategies to deal with the new reality.Panelist:Eszter Polgári, Legal Program Director at Háttér Society, HungaryDenis Oleinik, Executive Director at ComingOut, RussiaJan Krč, Former Counselor for Public Affairs at the US Embassy in Vienna, USAModerated by: Ludo A.F. Swinnen, Co-founder East meets West, Belgium

Pavel and Ludo are welcoming, also on behalf of all our supporting partners and official representatives, all participants to their 10th International East meets West Conference, explaining the main theme of this Conference: “Are the honeymoon years over?’ and if yes where do we go from now?Our key supporting partners welcome the participants in their exclusive location in the centre of Vienna where we can enjoy a unique panoramic view on the Imperial city.

We had a great talk to CGLCC, Canada's 2SLGBTQI+ Chamber of Commerce, about their work and mainly about the "historic" LGBTIQ Trade Mission to Europe. Trade Missions are well known to many, but an LGBTIQ Trade Mission? It is one of the concrete ways how LGBTIQ owned businesses can get more visibility and tap on new business opportunities. Talks on LGBTIQ Business have also always a prominent place at our signature events, our International Conferences. The next one takes place on June 16th in Vienna, the Capital of Austria and will be also streamed ONLINE. Our "Corporates going beyond their borders" panel includes Supplier Diversity & Inclusion and our LGBTIQ Travel panel is just perfect for new entrepreneurship endeavours.More on https://www.eastmeetswest.eu/2023conference. Listen to our conversation with Darrell Schuurman, who co-founded CGLCC 20 years ago, and Cass Elliott who runs CGLCC Global Programs. It was once again for us an enjoyable recording. And if you want to learn more about CGLCC and perhaps to take the flight to Kingston (Canada) and meet CGLCC at their 2023 Conference, there is a special offer waiting for you!

Often the name of an organisation gives you a good idea about what it stands for. The name LGBTQ+ Founders does not do that, so when we from East meets West got to know Ignacio Nietocarvajal and Kristaps Krafte, the co-founders of this organisation, they needed to clear the fog in our minds but very quickly we became quite enthusiastic about this unique initiative that fills a gap in ways of supporting new LGBTIQ initiatives. We also realised that we had as organisation a lot in common! Not only do both of our organisations believe in community, support and influence through our actions, each of us is quite active in a challenging business environment, and who want to support the LGBTIQ communities in their own field of excellence. LGBTQ+ Founders is a community devoted to LGBTQ+ founders, investors, supporters & friends, to share solutions and successfully deal with all kinds of challenges they encounter. You are curious about this new initiative and want to know more about this offer? Listen to our latest East meets West SPOTLIGHT SERIES released at the occasion of the International Human Rights Day. Did you know that the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights will be celebrated only next year, on December 10th 2023? Ahead of this milestone, starting on this year's Human Rights Day United Nations will launch a year-long campaign to showcase the UDHR by focusing on its legacy, relevance and activism.

Every initiative, be it a profit or non-profit project, starts with a great idea. But the journey from an inspiring idea to an entrepreneurial success is filled with numerous challenges. Important is to get here the support from professionals who can tell you how to deal with challenges and help you to take the right decisions. East meets West is happy to present in its March SPOTLIGHT SERIES such a helping hand. We recently met Deborah Abate, the head of BØWIE Incubator, and realised we have a common language. We both believe in inspiration which is needed to take own actions. It was at the end of 2018 that the BØWIE Incubator project was born in the minds of the Be You Network members (follow on LinkedIn). From the first edition in 2019, it received a strong interest in Switzerland and neighbouring countries. In 3 years, more than 130 project leaders representing more than 70 projects have been supported by BØWIE Incubator. BØWIE Incubator offers a 6-month online programme which will give you all the needed support to launch or grow your feminist or LGBTIQ+ project. Who can apply? In 2022, we accept projects from Switzerland, Austria and Eastern European countries. All projects will be part of the same cohort and follow the programme together, thus enabling the exchange between different countries.

How much do you know about the current situation in Hungary? We all are aware of the recent Hungarian Legislation, that makes providing information on LGBTIQ to people under 18 years the object of legal sanctions. This comes in addition to already existing laws against the well-being of the LGBTIQ community (e.g. ban on gender change). For our October SPOTLIGHT recording we invited Támas Dombos, the true expert on what the situation is in Hungary. He made us familiar with the new legislation in Hungary, the local political context and most importantly, the implication of the legislation to workplace inclusion. Legal aid services are among the key activities of Háttér Society, the leading Hungarian NGO where Támas serves as the member of the board. But Támas was not alone who we interviewed. We asked Ludo to tell us more about the new East meets West ONLINE series SHARING THE GOOD PRACTICES FOR YOUR WORKPLACE INCLUSION IN HUNGARY, events to examine which could be the right (clever and efficient) position of corporates vis-à-vis this legislation. He recently interviewed four important corporate players in Hungary and in this SPOTLIGHT recording he shares with you the key learnings.