IF-discussions in Vilnius, Lithuania
Two IF Fellows facilitated two discussion series about two IF reports in Vilnius, Lithuania last March. Mark Notturno conducted a discussion about IF’s The Future of Higher Education discussion guide in English, and Ieva Notturno conducted a discussion about IF’s The Future of Employment report in Lithuanian.
The participants gathered in a cozy restaurant, Marche de Provance, in Vilnius’ baroque old town.
They were diverse in their age, gender, professions, and worldviews. Some were in their early twenties, others in their forties, fifties, and sixties. There were lawyers, business people, painters, and unemployed. The discussions focused on exploring policy possibilities and ideas presented in the IF discussion guides.
After the discussions, many discussants said that they had few if any such opportunities to engage in discussions about public policy. They shared many of the concerns expressed in the reports and regarded some possibilities more viable than others for Lithuanian context. I was very happy to see that people speaking a different language living on a different continent across the ocean could so easily grasp the policy possibilities that we present in our reports. I hope to see many more discussions there and in other countries in the future.