2022

What a blast it was 29th of December, 2022! Global Lithuanian Leaders met in Vilnius to acknowledge valuable input of Lithuanian diaspora professionals and their contribution to Lithuania’s prosperity.

This year, LABA was abundant to represent diaspora and support Lithuania’s enhancement globally. LABA was proud to be part of Global Lithuanian Professionals Forum which focused on partnerships and connections. Kęstas Barzdaitis, LABA Leader, CTO at Signal Automotive Inc., founder at Adroiti Technologies (US) was one of the panelists to discuss ‘The development of Lithuanian ecosystems in the global world’. Kestas Bar ’ experience in international markets and personal reflections inspired discussion together with Agnė Selemonaitė, Chair of Board / Chief of Strategy at "ConnectPay" (Lithuania), Dr. Arminas Ragauskas, Scientist, innovator, businessman (Lithuania), Ruta J. Laukien, Strategic Advisor and Investor, Managing Partner at "GrayBella Capital" (US) and dialogue with audience.

Gitanas Nausėda, President of the Republic of Lithuania and Patron of Global Lithuanian Awards awarded all nominees for Diaspora Engagement to Support Ukraine: Andrius Zubernis (UK), Austeja Sruoga (US), Irma Petraityte-Luksiene (Germany), Vilma Green (UK), Rima Ziuraitis&Ausra Tallat Kelpsa (US), Eleonora Jonusiene - Romuva (US). On behalf of LABA, we congratulate all laureates and team is honoured to have inspiring leader, friend, mentor Eleonora Romuva, co-founder of the Lithuanian American Business Association in Los Angeles, onboard who dedicated recent year for civic, humanitarian, and artistic initiatives in support of Ukraine.

  #teamLithuania power and originality is the instant global effort in various combinations summoned in need for Ukraine with the help of the diaspora. #teamLithuania in LA is a singularity of teams that contains such a wealth of unique contributions for Lithuanian businesses, academia, organisations and their global expansion to flourish and succeed. Required to be robust enough whether for business or pleasure #teamLithuania in LA: Lietuvos Respublikos generalinis konsulatas Los Andžele, Mantas Zamžickas, Commercial Attaché, Daiva Cekanauskas Navarrette, Honorary Consul, Baltic American Freedom League, Los Angeles Lithuanian Community / Los Angeles JAV Lietuvių Bendruomenė- function as coordinated instrument. Go #teamLithuania! Let’s reach new heights in 2023!

Photo Credit: Irmantas Gelūnas Photography

Always good to see everyone and always discover new faces! We are planning to set Happy Hours every last Thursday each month. See you in January!

The UCLA Global Access Program (GAP) in Los Angeles was designed to combine the unique skills of fully employed MBA students and professors from UCLA Anderson School of Management, one of the highest-ranked business schools in the world, with the needs of global companies seeking answers to critical strategic questions about entering the U.S. market. This year 48 companies participated in the UCLA GAP program from around the world. One of them was a Lithuanian company Precizika Metrology, UAB.

Precizika Metrology designs and manufactures metrological equipment – rotary, angle, linear encoders and optical encoder gratings. The Lithuanian company has been in the industry since 1961 and with this heritage comes a great responsibility to continuously move forward, improve and evolve in order to satisfy the ever-changing industry needs. A huge part of time spent in the industry was dedicated to working with top-of-the-line original equipment manufacturing (OEM) companies, listening to their feedback and providing innovative solutions to a variety of diverse challenges.

The partnership between UCLA GAP program, Consulate General of the Republic of Lithuania in Los Angeles and Lithuanian American Business Association in Los Angeles goes back in 2018. This is a great example of partnership between local Lithuanian professionals (kudos to Darius Aleksander for being this program's ambassador!), Academia and Lithuanian government to provide platform to Lithuanian companies for the export possibilities, knowledge exchange and promoting Lithuania and its brands around the world.

In the picture, Vaiva Pechulis representing LABA.LA and Mantas Zamžickas, Commercial Attaché to the USA attended the UCLA GAP program to support the Lithuanian team.

American Film Market, the most important industry and business event for filmmakers in the United States, is taking place in Santa Monica, California November 1 - 6, 2022. On November 3rd (coldest night ever!), in Santa Monica the 6^th Annual Lithuanian AFM Networking Event was held. The event was organized by the Lithuanian World Arts Council (special thanks to Daiva Cekanauskas Navarrette & Marius Markevicius), Lithuanian American Business Association in Los Angeles (special thanks to Eleonora J. Romuva, Snaiguole Venckiene, Vaiva Pechulis, Monika Kiznis, Birute Tursaite & Vytas Narutis) in partnership with the Consulate General of Lithuania in Los Angeles (special thanks to Laima Jureviciene, Jurgita Warren, Mantas Zamzickas, Krystina Kovalevska, Airida Zalieckaite), Baltic Film & Creative Tech Cluster (special thanks to Romanas Matulis, Agnesta Filatove), and the Lithuanian Film Center (special thanks to Laimonas Ubavicius).

The event was a wonderful opportunity to connect with the industry peers and explore the ideas of the potential future productions while highlighting Lithuania’s filmmakers and the new generation of talents, overviewing locations and financial incentives available for shooting in Lithuania; also seizing the opportunity to present already produced Lithuania-born stories to the US and Global markets. The event touched on:

• Recent foreign productions shot in Lithuania such as “Stranger Things” Season 4 by Netflix, “Sisi” by SatelFilm and Story House, “Hilma” by ViaPlay Group, “Kompromat” by Kanal+ and Super 8 Production, “Young Wallander” and “Playlist” by Netflix and Benijay.
• Co-productions such as “Vesper” (Lithuania, France, Belgium), “Aurora’s Sunrise” (Armenia, Lithuania, Germany), “Mariupolis 2” (Lithuania, France, Germany), “Ayena” (India, Lithuania, S. Korea)
• American Productions led by Lithuanian filmmakers: a documentary entitled “Thug Rose” (Sorrento Productions, UFC), director Marius Markevicius, and a mini-series “The Offer” (Paramount+), with the series executive producer, and the director of episodes 1 and 2, Dexter Fletcher, and one of the producers, Dalia Ibelhauptaite, attending.  
• The event also highlighted Lithuania’s submissions for the Oscars in three categories: International Feature Film - “Pilgrims” (director Laurynas Bareisa), Documentary - “Mr. Landsbergis” (director Sergey Loznytsa), and Documentary Short Subject - “Limuzinas” (director Saule Bliuvaite).

It was a great honor to have a Lithuanian delegation of producers and executives in attendance, including Arturas Dvinelis and Viktorija Macyte (European Production Hub), Dovydas Vilkelis (Animatrix), Greta Maria Zaharaviciute (Idea Eurus), Inesa Kurklietyte (director “Butterfly’s Heart”), Jurate Pazikaite (Vilnius Film Office), Mantvydas Zalenas (Cinema Ads), Mindaugas Jokubaitis and Raminta Olinskaite (OAK9 Entertainment), Ruta Jekentaite (Baltic Productions) and Zivile Gallego (Fralita Films).

The evening’s program was led by Marius Vilunas, Daiva Cekanauskas Navarrette and Vyto Ruginis.

We’d like to say a big thank you to everyone for co-creating this event, we couldn’t have done it without you: Raimonda and Tomas for the incredible location and delicious food, Snaiga Venckiene and Alex for video & audio support, Ruah Edelstein for the amazing Animation Installations, DJ Miles Perlic, Marija Grajauskaite for captured moments, Marius Morkūnas for graphic design, Marius Vilunas for content management, Saulius Kajota for amazing job at the bar, Creamy Boys Ice-Cream and to the providers of drinks Health-Ade Kombucha (Daina Trout) & Vintage Distilling (Erik& Silvija Dudor).

Connecting people with ideas works!

Amazing 5th get-together with like-minded Lithuanian professionals from 14 pro-clubs around the world is held in a different city every year: Kopenhagen -> Dublin -> Brussels -> Berlin -> Oslo (2022).

Global Lithuanian Leaders organize the summit to provide the platform for one-to-one networking among global Lithuanian professionals, diaspora, and officials from Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania from Ekonomikos ir inovacijų ministerija, Ambassadors, and Commercial Attaches.

This was the largest and the first event for over 60% of participants. This summit creates an amazing opportunity to learn, collaborate, recharge our batteries and meet Lithuanian professionals worldwide. Thanks to Kestas Barzdaitis for representing the USA and Lithuanian American Business Association in Los Angeles. We invite all Lithuanian professionals in the USA to join future events!

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Lithuanian professionals from New York (NY), San Francisco (CA), Philadelphia (PA), Chicago (IL), Washington DC, Seattle (WA), Miami (FL), Tampa (FL), Rotary Club of Chicago Lithuanians, and everywhere in the USA.

The 2022 North American Lithuanian Business (NALB) Forum gathered more than 200 attendees and 37 speakers for one day of discussions and networking focusing on Lithuanian Economic achievements and opportunities, entry strategy to the U.S. Market via Pennsylvania, discussion about Lithuanian and North American investment opportunities as well as opportunities within Lithuanian Startup Ecosystem and providing Lithuanian Food And Beverage degustation and networking.

The NALB Forum has been organized by the TEAM LITHUANIA represented by BACC New York (special thanks to Inga Klimasauskiene), Global Lithuanian Leaders (special thanks to Lina Duseviciene and Marija Saraite), LABA.LA (special thanks to Eleonora Romuva, Kestas Barzdaitis), New York Lithuanian Professionals (special thanks to Gedas Ramanauskas), Honorary Consul of Pennsylvania Krista Bard, Economic diplomats Danas Vaitkevicius, Vidmantas Verbickas, Karolis Anuzis, and Mantas Zamciskas aiming at connecting business and economic leaders in dialogue and partnership to continue expanding import & export opportunities to Lithuania and the USA.

The genesis of the NALB Forum goes back to 2019 when two Lithuanian business clubs of Washington and Los Angeles, together with the Lithuanian embassy in Washington in partnership with Danas Vaitkevicius, kicked off the first Forum to create collaboration between Lithuanian business organizations and Lithuanian commerce diplomats to work as ONE TEAM to enhance export & import opportunities for Lithuania, followed by 2021 the Online North American Lithuanian Business Forum during Pandemics which showed the need and appetite for an in-person Forum.

Step by step, we are coming together to build highways of partnerships across the states, work together with each other more effectively, empower creative collaboration, ensuring continuity, and flow of ideas, talent, services, and products. See you all in the 2023 NALB Forum that will take place in the Chicago Union League on 7th - 8th of July.

Traditional Lithuanian Folk Dance Festival | Šokių šventė 2022 in Philadelphia on June 29 was devoted to the North American Lithuanian Business Forum.

The LITHUANIA STARTUP NATION session featured the startup ecosystem, its players and creators. It was organized by #GLL, Ekonomikos ir inovacijų ministerija, Lithuanian American Business Association in Los Angeles, New York Lithuanian Professionals, Lithuanian Business Angel Network, and Triniti Jurex. Participants were able to meet business angels, investors and startup founders.

THANK YOU Stand with Ukraine LA Foundation! We are very happy to announce that your donations went a long way in achieving this! Proceeds from MR LANDSBERGIS film screening in Los Angeles were used to purchase a camouflage painted van packed full with much-needed supplies and aid for defenders of Ukraine!

Team Lithuania: Lithuanian Consulate in Los Angeles, Lithuanian World Arts Council (LWAC), Lithuanian American Business Association in Los Angeles (LABA.LA), Baltic American Freedom League (BAFL), Lithuanian Community in LA

June 9th at the Ukrainian Culture Center in Los Angeles was dedicated to the memory of anthropologist and director Mantas Kvedaravičius who was killed in Mariupol, and all those who have died in the fight against Russian aggression in Mariupol. His internationally acclaimed documentary film MARIUPOLIS (2016) was shown that night and captures the daily lives and stories of the survivors of a war-torn city. “I hope while watching this film you’ll feel that at least for a moment you are in Mariupol, Ukraine, together with people who live among the half-million residents in a war-torn city: bombs explode, people die. That war sometimes comes to the city itself, but life goes on nonetheless” said the late director.

This year, Mantas Kvedaravičius was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at Lithuania’s Silver Crane Film Awards. The winner was announced by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, expressing the hope that “the life of Mantas Kvedaravičius, his artistic legacy and dedication will inspire others to protect the most important things - truth, freedom and justice. That is what the future of a democratic and free Ukraine depends on today, as well as the future of Europe as a whole."

This is a first joined event together with Lietuvos Respublikos generalinis konsulatas Los Andžele, Lithuanian World Arts Council, Ukrainian Culture Center - UCC, and Stand With Ukraine Foundation celebrating life and building bridges between Lithuanian and Ukrainian diasporas.

We thank everyone who came to the event and for your support to Ukraine in the fight against Russian aggression. We also grateful to our information partners Los Angeles Lithuanian Community / Los Angeles JAV Lietuvių Bendruomenė, and BAFL- Baltic American Freedom League and Health-Ade for refreshing drinks!

Special thanks to Daiva Cekanauskas Navarrette, Eleonora Romuva, Marius Vilunas, Mariana Yuriyivna, Laryssa Reifel, George, Iryna Vasylkova, Victor Kapshuk, Мишко М. for making this event happen and Tomas Umbrasas, Sonata JP, Nijole Kinciniene for your amazing support during the screening.

Until victory!

Photo credit: Marija Grajauskaite

It was great seeing you all! :-) Next networking event will be announced soon. Stay tuned!

On March 20th, at the Landmark cinema theater in Los Angeles, Team Lithuania* invited everyone to watch a documentary feature “Mr. Landsbergis”. The film examines the events that took place thirty four years ago (1988-1991) in Lithuania where its fight for freedom culminated in Lithuania restoring its independence and leaving the illegally imposed membership of the Soviet Union.

At the screening the majority of us relived this history one more time. Presented with this opportunity to reflect and to better reconcile the events of the past we stand determined to show our unwavering support to the other nations that are struggling for their independence and the democratic ideals.

Unfortunately, the terror from the Soviet times is still alive; it is actually amplified. The Kremlin's methods and narrative have not changed. Ukraine is currently forced to fight the aggressor. At stake is theirs freedom, and ours too. The level of support from the Western democracies will determine Ukraine’s and our future. That is why we are all Ukrainians today!

All proceeds and donations from this screening went to the Stand with Ukraine LA (Los Angeles, CA). It will support the humanitarian needs of the Ukrainian people.

Team Lithuania: Lietuvos Respublikos generalinis konsulatas Los Andžele, Lithuanian World Arts Council, LABA.LA, Los Angeles Lithuanian Community / Los Angeles JAV Lietuvių Bendruomenė. Big shout out to Marius Vilunas for an incredible partnership & support.

Photo credit: Maria Grajauskaite

Happy Lithuania Hike 2022!

Thank you #TeamLithuania Lietuvos Respublikos generalinis konsulatas Los Andžele, Daiva Cekanauskas Navarrette