January 25th

On Saturday, January 25th, Lithuanian Expats Organization in Berlin (LEO in Berlin) and Global Lithuanian Leaders invited Lithuanians living and working in Germany to the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania in Berlin to attend a very first forum for Lithuanian Professionals in Germany. 40 participants from 8 cities across Germany gathered to get to know each other, share ideas and discuss different topics. 

“Mostly of attendees had more than 15 years of working experience in German corporations and were willing to share their knowledge and insights with other Lithuanians, Lithuanian institutions or organizations. It’s a great pleasure to gather them all to the first-ever Lithuanian Professional Forum in Germany and give a tribune to share their expertise.” – said Vytaute Rimkute, Co-Founder at LEO in Berlin.

“We at Global Lithuanian Leaders are happy to see the expansion of the global Lithuanian network and strongly believe in its value for all – country of origin, country of residence, and most importantly for eager and curious professionals themselves. It is so much more powerful when done together”, – says Lina Dusevičienė who came all the way from Lithuania to get inspired by the positivity of the audience.

To match as many interests of the audience as possible, we have developed the program meant to demonstrate the variety of career paths Lithuanians have taken here, illustrate the diversity of possibilities of professional cooperation with Lithuania, as well as engage the audience into the interactive workshops on how to make it tighter, more effective and more abundant.

First part of the forum included welcome words from LEO in Berlin,, Global Lithuanian Leaders and hosts – The Lithuanian Embassy in Germany. After that Dr. Danguolė Hackel (Counsel at Eversheds Sutherland (Deutschland) LLP), Karolina Matutytė (IT Performance Manager at BMW Group) and Dainius Kniukšta (Senior Digital Product Manager at Maersk) took some time to talk about their career paths and connections to Lithuania. 

Second part of the forum was dedicated to more interactive exchange of ideas during two workshops. One of them was led by Lina Dusevičienė from Global Lithuanian Leaders who helped to gather thoughts on how to connect locally for glocal effect. Another workshop, moderated by  Šarūne Šablevičienė, the Commercial attaché at the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania, focused on generating ideas on how Lithuanians in Germany can facilitate to Lithuanian export and investment cases. 

The forum ended on a high note with people exchanging contacts, planning next meetings and follow up actions. Hopefully this event could become a great tradition. 

Kamilė Pranskūnaitė

LEO in Berlin Project Coordinator