Despite rainy weather, the third conversation festival LAMPA (June 30 – July 1, Cēsis Castle park) gathered over 10 000 participants. Two hundred festival events attracted a diverse audience – musicians, artists, doctors, ministers, politicians, academicians, journalists, entrepreneurs and many others.
Stellar events, thoughtful discussions and hot topics – all featured at the conversation festival LAMPA. Participants included a broad range of individuals – politicians were represented by the Minister of Economy Arvils Ašeradens, the Cēsis mayor Jānis Rozenbergs, Member of the European Parliament Artis Pabriks, former President Valdis Zatlers, Riga City Council Members Juta Strīķe un Iveta Ratinīka, parliamentarians Igors Pimenovs, Ilmārs Latkovskis, Rihards Kols, Laimdota Straujuma, Gunārs Kūtris, Juris Viļums and many others. Politicians discussed the state of the media, the development of Latvian identity, and democracy. They participated in many other events, including a foreign policy game show, competing against students.
For the first time, LAMPA attracted a large number of entrepreneurs, especially those from the start-up world. LAMPA participants included Daniels Pavļuts, Board member of the Latvian Start-up Association, Marija Rucevska, director of the conference “TechChill’, Raimonds Kulbergs, director of the start-up “Funderful”, and many others.
New Riga Theatre actor Vilis Daudziņš, theatre director Vladislavs Nastaševs and Daile theatre actor Juris Žagars all shared their thoughts and observations at LAMPA. The Metropolitan Archbishop of Rīga Zbigņevs Stankevics discussed with politicians and entrepreneurs – how to be honest with oneself and others. Track and field athlete Ineta Radevica talked about the nature of sports. The importance of innovation was highlighted by Vidzeme University College lecturer Gatis Krumiņš. University of Latvia researcher Visvaldis Valtenbergs, economist Ilona Platonova and others. Members of the academic community – from the University of Latvia, the Riga Technical University, the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, the Riga Stradiņu University and Daugavpils University – were broadly represented. A number of discussions focused on the future of Latvia – what will Latvia be like in 20, 50 or 100 years, given different development scenarios.