On February 21 AmCham Latvia in cooperation with the Baltic Institute for Corporate Governance (BICG) organized the first joint seminar on the imact of disinformation on business in Latvia. 

In addition to other challenges in business, entrepreneurs find themselves facing the threat of disinformation. However, the subject of risks arising from disinformation is still new and unexplored. To raise the awareness about this issue between businesses and look for the ways to tackle it, a panel of distinguished experts discussed improvements of risk governance practices in enterprises amidst growing disinformation and the role of media, business community and opinion leaders in fighting against it. 

The seminar was opened by a few words from the organizers - the Country Manager Latvia of BICG Andris Grafs and the President of AmCham Latvia Arnis Kākulis.

Mr. Kākulis expressed his support for raising this issue for a broader discussion: "The topic of today's discussion is an underestimated, but an extremely important subject, which already influences businesses in Latvia and the threat will only be increasing if not addressed properly. Information has been used as a weapon throughout history, but today we face a new era, when disinformation influences our everyday life as well as our businesses, therefore I am delighted to welcome all the experts and guests here today to discuss this pressing issue."

The discussion, moderated by Andris Sprūds, Director of the Latvian Institute of International Affairs, begun with two keynote speaches. Uldis Biķis, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Latvijas Finieris shared his companie's experience in facing the threat of disinformation and Jānis Sārts, Director of the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence gave insight into the current trends in technology development and strategic communication. 

The panel was later joined by Inna Šteinbuka, Head of the European Commission Representation in Latvia, Andris Lauciņš, Partner of EY Latvia and Laura Minskere, CEO, Co-Founder of Mediju Tilts/ Burson-Marsteller. 

ORGANIZERS AND PARTNERS

Amcham Latvia (www.amcham.lv)
Baltic Institute of Corporate Governance (www.bicg.eu)
Latvijas Finieris (http://www.finieris.com/)
Latvian Institute of International Affairs (http://www.liia.lv/en/home)
NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence (http://www.stratcomcoe.org/)
European Commission Representation in Latvia (http://ec.europa.eu/latvia)

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