The project culminated on October 23, with participant idea presentations. The SSE Riga Soros auditorium was full of supporters, who came to listen to ideas from the future generation of Latvian leaders.

The audience included not only programme alumni from previous years, but also the top management of Latvian banks, former Latvian president Valdis Zatlers (2007-2011), Sweden’s Ambassador to Latvia Karin Höglund, as well as leading Latvian journalist Pauls Raudseps. Also present were Latvian parliamentary deputies Inese Voika ("For development/PAR!") and Kaspars Briškens ("Progressives").

During the five weekends of the project,  participants were divided into teams of two with the task of identifying a problem essential to Latvia's development. They had to research how other countries deal with similar issues and prepare a presentation on how Latvia could solve the problem innovatively.

As part of the project, training workshops were held for participants on how to present their message, how to argue their case, and how to make the story more personal, in addition to training in and development of their public speaking skills.

The presentations were highly diverse with innovative approaches ranging from the suggestion to form a students’ union for high school students to communicate their needs to the Ministry of Education and Science, suggestions on how to deal with mental health challenges in society, and even a vision of the future development of the port of Riga.

This was the sixth year of the Future Leaders Academy. The project is organized by the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga (SSE Riga), with support from the Swedish Embassy in Latvia and the Swedish Institute. The aim of the project is to select, educate, inspire, and develop the leadership potential of young people between 18 and 25 from all over Latvia.

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