Conferences/seminars, meetings and jury work in Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius showcase a rapidly growing interest in Design for All in three Baltic states.

24-27 March were hectic days for EIDD President Finn Petrén and Ambassador Pete Kercher. A national conference, Design as a Strategic Competitive Advantage, in Tallinn on 24 March, held in co-operation between the Estonian Association of Designers and EIDD, was followed by a similar event in Riga on 25 March organised by the Latvian Design Foundation. Both conferences were “sold out” and gathered audiences with a good mixture of stakeholders representing the design community, ministries, municipalities, universities and others.

The Estonian and Latvian conferences were then followed by a range of EIDD activities in Vilnius 26-27 March, organised by our local Corporate Member, the Lithuanian Design Forum. On day one, the EIDD representatives had a productive meeting with the Programme Director of Vilnius ’09 European Capital of Culture followed by a meeting with the Urban Development Department of the City of Vilnius. The second day marked the opening of the Furniture Exhibition at the Lithuanian Exhibition Centre LITEXPO. An EIDD seminar was held on the theme of Design for All, and the EIDD President also fulfilled his tasks as a member of the jury for the Exhibition FURNITURE Design Competition.

The EIDD Baltic tour was successfully prepared in close co-operation between Ilona Gurjanova, President of the Estonian Association of Designers, Kaspars Garkevics of the Latvian Design Foundation, Marius Dirgela, Director of the Lithuanian Design Forum and Pete Kercher, former President of EIDD, now Ambassador, who rounded the week off with a trip to Ljubljana, in Slovenia, to represent EIDD at the BEDA General Assembly.

Pete Kercher, Ilona Gurjanova and Hannu Kähönen in Tallinn

Kaspars Garkevics and Finn Petrén in Riga

Vilnius ´09 European Capital of Culture