East meets West SPOTLIGHT SERIES

About East meets West SPOTLIGHT SERIES

To innovate and to come up continuously with new ideas has for many years been a symbol of East meets West. People we meet throughout the year and then bring to the Conference stage deserve more than just the short session at our signature event. We therefore decided to go the next mile and establish regular online events. We are proud and happy to introduce to the wider public the East meets West SPOTLIGHT SERIES. Every month we select an inspiring individual, organisation or proud business and we bring them to our online stage for either an interactive session with the audience or a podcast.

Publisher

East meets West

Category

business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

10 Nov 2020

Latest episode

2 Jul 2025

Latest episodes

19 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   2 Jul 2025

   2025 East meets West Conference - Entrepreneurship Panel

   2025 East meets West Conference Recordings Entrepreneurship, finally recognising their unexploited potential The major part of the economical business activity in Europe is the daily work of millions of smaller businesses, often not in the spotlight but key to our economical welfare. We have too long tried, often with limited success, to engage this major economical power to push the DEI values. Now the time has come to turn these motivated people to become a group of inspirational and impactful role models. We look on ways we can use this unexploited business power and turn the present negative wave into a commercial success. Also here its essential to cooperate within their sector and join forces to become a real economical power that will continue to support the LGBTIQ community.Panelists:- Lushentha Naidoo, Managing Director at ESDP, The Netherlands- Giovanna Ceccherini, Secretary General at ELTA - European LGBTQ+ Travel Alliance, Italy- Vit Lichtenstein, Co-founder and General Manager at mypaperwork.ai, Austria- Roger Holzapfel-Barta, CEO at Hotel Deutsche Eiche, Germanymoderated by: Tina Ličková, Researcher & Podcaster, Slovakia

2. 

   2 Jul 2025

   2025 East meets West Conference - Advocacy Panel

   2025 East meets West Conference Recordings Advocacies, showing their ability to adjust their work to handle new and unexpected challengesWe have in our region of Central & Eastern Europe a large number of civil society groups that have been the motor of the continuous improvements we have seen in the last decades for the local LGBTIQ communities. But these groups are now faced with a question: will they be able to continue their work facing huge challenges. We have invited 4 professionals that will discuss with you possible answers to such pressing questions. It will inspire all of you to overcome the challenges you are confronted with in your daily work. Panelists: - Monika Haider, Founder of Diversity Awards Austria- Yves Aerts Jacobs, Executive Director at çavaria, Belgium- Goran Miletic, Senior Advisor to the Executive Director, Civil Rights Defenders, Sweden- Madrid Bednár, Founder of Dragrift Slovakia, Slovakiamoderated by Laco Hudec-Šubrt, Founder at VecizVeci and performer, Austria

3. 

   2 Jul 2025

   2025 East meets West Conference - Corporate Panel

   2025 East meets West Conference Recording Corporates, showing their true colors without airs and graces or any pretense Until recently many corporates have been major supporters of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, not in the least in the funding of civil society groups world wide. Internally, they included these DEI values in the DNA of their companies. The recent US legislation and legal decisions have forced them to re-evaluate these policies. Some just dropped their DEI values, others reaffirmed their DEI beliefs and developed new activities that they consider to allow them to continue their support. We will focus on these corporate players and how they have reacted to the new situation. You will hear from corporate insiders how these key players have not forsaken their existing DEI focus and try to continue to keep playing their major role. Panelists:- Elisabeth Dal-Bianco, Communication Operations Manager at IKEA, Austria- Réka R. Artner, Head of BOLD Community at Austrian Federal Economic Chamber, Austria- Hannes Mösenbacher, Chief Risk Officer (CRO) at Raiffeisen Bank International, Austria- Matt Foster, Director of Inclusion and Impact at Ogilvy, The United Kingdommoderated by Katja Kreiner, People Management at RDB, Austria

4. 

   2 Jul 2025

   2025 East meets West Conference - Keynote Jens Schadendorf

   2025 East meets West Conference Recording KEYNOTE: Taking Our Destiny in Our Own HandsWhen we undergo important changes in our existing working environment, we might get ‘lost in space’. In that case it is very inspiring to listen to people who can explain the more underlying strategic issues of these social changes. East meets West is happy and proud to have on the Conference a famous, internationally recognised authority on the LGBTIQ topics in business and society... and someone who actively writes for eg. Financial Times Deutschland.Jens Schadendorf, Economist, LGBTQ Researcher and Bestselling-Author, Germany

5. 

   2 Jul 2025

   2025 East meets West Conference - The Look & The Look (Hungary, Russia, USA)

   2025 East meets West Recording The Look and the Look... this time “revisited”: The status of the LGBTIQ Communities in the CEE region and together looking for fitting answers.Instead of Ludo's classic "The Look from the East and the Look from the West" we break here this traditional approach, and we focus on people representing key areas that are under high pressure from a violent and loud anti-LGBTIQ opposition. As the panel members all live in, or have strong ties with the discussed locations, they will offer you an objective view on the situation in their country. This will allow you to discover the best possible strategies to deal with the new reality.Panelist:Eszter Polgári, Legal Program Director at Háttér Society, HungaryDenis Oleinik, Executive Director at ComingOut, RussiaJan Krč, Former Counselor for Public Affairs at the US Embassy in Vienna, USAModerated by: Ludo A.F. Swinnen, Co-founder East meets West, Belgium

6. 

   2 Jul 2025

   2025 East meets West Conference - Opening and Welcome from Co-Founders

   Pavel and Ludo are welcoming, also on behalf of all our supporting partners and official representatives, all participants to their 10th International East meets West Conference, explaining the main theme of this Conference: “Are the honeymoon years over?’ and if yes where do we go from now?Our key supporting partners welcome the participants in their exclusive location in the centre of Vienna where we can enjoy a unique panoramic view on the Imperial city.

7. 

   21 May 2023

   East meets West SPOTLIGHT SERIES #14 with CGLCC

   We had a great talk to CGLCC, Canada's 2SLGBTQI+ Chamber of Commerce, about their work and mainly about the "historic" LGBTIQ Trade Mission to Europe. Trade Missions are well known to many, but an LGBTIQ Trade Mission? It is one of the concrete ways how LGBTIQ owned businesses can get more visibility and tap on new business opportunities. Talks on LGBTIQ Business have also always a prominent place at our signature events, our International Conferences. The next one takes place on June 16th in Vienna, the Capital of Austria and will be also streamed ONLINE. Our "Corporates going beyond their borders" panel includes Supplier Diversity & Inclusion and our LGBTIQ Travel panel is just perfect for new entrepreneurship endeavours.More on https://www.eastmeetswest.eu/2023conference (https://www.eastmeetswest.eu/2023conference). Listen to our conversation with Darrell Schuurman, who co-founded CGLCC 20 years ago, and Cass Elliott who runs CGLCC Global Programs. It was once again for us an enjoyable recording. And if you want to learn more about CGLCC and perhaps to take the flight to Kingston (Canada) and meet CGLCC at their 2023 Conference, there is a special offer waiting for you!

8. 

   10 Dec 2022

   East meets West SPOTLIGHT SERIES #13 with Ignacio and from LGBTQ+ Founders

   Often the name of an organisation gives you a good idea about what it stands for. The name LGBTQ+ Founders (http://lgbtqfounders.com/) does not do that, so when we from East meets West got to know Ignacio Nietocarvajal and Kristaps Krafte, the co-founders of this organisation, they needed to clear the fog in our minds but very quickly we became quite enthusiastic about this unique initiative that fills a gap in ways of supporting new LGBTIQ initiatives. We also realised that we had as organisation a lot in common! Not only do both of our organisations believe in community, support and influence through our actions, each of us is quite active in a challenging business environment, and who want to support the LGBTIQ communities in their own field of excellence. LGBTQ+ Founders is a community devoted to LGBTQ+ founders, investors, supporters & friends, to share solutions and successfully deal with all kinds of challenges they encounter. You are curious about this new initiative and want to know more about this offer? Listen to our latest East meets West SPOTLIGHT SERIES released at the occasion of the International Human Rights Day. Did you know that the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.un.org%2Fen%2Fabout-us%2Funiversal-declaration-of-human-rights&xid=7427bbf138&uid=54064401&iid=5f0bf67aed&pool=cts&v=2&c=1670606769&h=d96546748f2fe98bf450f28d6c2d5e35486addaf2ac2100bcb353f3ae6418c94) will be celebrated only next year, on December 10th 2023? Ahead of this milestone, starting on this year's Human Rights Day (https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ohchr.org%2Fen%2Fget-involved%2Fcampaign%2Fhuman-rights-day&xid=7427bbf138&uid=54064401&iid=5f0bf67aed&pool=cts&v=2&c=1670606769&h=127471df108a348079054af08c1139d195f9e34322765a45373e35fe14020c5f) United Nations will launch a year-long campaign to showcase the UDHR by focusing on its legacy, relevance and activism.

9. 

   30 Mar 2022

   East meets West SPOTLIGHT SERIES #12 with Deborah Abate from BØWIE Incubator

   Every initiative, be it a profit or non-profit project, starts with a great idea. But the journey from an inspiring idea to an entrepreneurial success is filled with numerous challenges. Important is to get here the support from professionals who can tell you how to deal with challenges and help you to take the right decisions. East meets West is happy to present in its March SPOTLIGHT SERIES such a helping hand. We recently met Deborah Abate, the head of BØWIE Incubator, and realised we have a common language. We both believe in inspiration which is needed to take own actions. It was at the end of 2018 that the BØWIE Incubator project (https://www.bowiecreators.com/) was born in the minds of the Be You Network members (follow on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/be-you-network/)). From the first edition in 2019, it received a strong interest in Switzerland and neighbouring countries. In 3 years, more than 130 project leaders representing more than 70 projects have been supported by BØWIE Incubator. BØWIE Incubator offers a 6-month online programme which will give you all the needed support to launch or grow your feminist or LGBTIQ+ project. Who can apply? In 2022, we accept projects from Switzerland, Austria and Eastern European countries. All projects will be part of the same cohort and follow the programme together, thus enabling the exchange between different countries.

10. 

    28 Oct 2021

    East meets West SPOTLIGHT SERIES #11 with Támas Dombos and Ludo Swinnen

    How much do you know about the current situation in Hungary? We all are aware of the recent Hungarian Legislation, that makes providing information on LGBTIQ to people under 18 years the object of legal sanctions. This comes in addition to already existing laws against the well-being of the LGBTIQ community (e.g. ban on gender change). For our October SPOTLIGHT recording we invited Támas Dombos (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tdombos/), the true expert on what the situation is in Hungary. He made us familiar with the new legislation in Hungary, the local political context and most importantly, the implication of the legislation to workplace inclusion. Legal aid services are among the key activities of Háttér Society (https://en.hatter.hu/), the leading Hungarian NGO where Támas serves as the member of the board. But Támas was not alone who we interviewed. We asked Ludo to tell us more about the new East meets West ONLINE series SHARING THE GOOD PRACTICES FOR YOUR WORKPLACE INCLUSION IN HUNGARY, events to examine which could be the right (clever and efficient) position of corporates vis-à-vis this legislation. He recently interviewed four important corporate players in Hungary and in this SPOTLIGHT recording he shares with you the key learnings.

11. 

    29 Sept 2021

    East meets West SPOTLIGHT SERIES #10 with Phil Crehan

    For our September SPOTLIGHT recording we invited a true expert on the topic of advancing LGBTIQ Economic Empowerment - Phil Crehan. He has a great track record in social inclusion and economic development with an LGBTIQ focus. This also brought Phil to the strategic role the World Bank is playing in improving the LGBTIQ well-being, a role that is not enough known. The World Bank Group is the premiere economic development institution in the world not only in terms of its budget, but also in terms of intellectual capital and leverage with governments. There are five parts of the World Bank Group and in this SPOTLIGHT, we focused on the World Bank itself and how this institution can be better understood by LGBTIQ organisations, business owners and people. With this we offer you the unique opportunity to leverage this institution to combat homophobia and transphobia. It is a very new agenda for the World Bank, started about 10 years ago. But now it is one of the internal policies and many of their data analytics, their programs, and their ways of mitigating the risk of exclusion, all has to address also looking at LGBTIQ inclusion. This is an important moment for the whole LGBTIQ community and as Phil said, "as a community, we have every right to engage with the World Bank whether it is in the Headquarters or country offices." And there is also something in addition from Phil we can share with you. He created an LGBTIQ civil society guide to help groups everywhere understand this public institution: https://mrifoundation.global/a-civil-society-guide-to-cracking-the-world-bank (https://mrifoundation.global/a-civil-society-guide-to-cracking-the-world-bank). It would not be our SPOTLIGHT if at the end we did not disclose some funny moments from our recording. This time Ludo commented on the size of Belgium and, revealed how ready he was for this recording!

12. 

    9 Aug 2021

    East meets West SPOTLIGHT SERIES #9 with Pavel & Ludo

    Our summer break is over and we are back in full speed! This includes our famous SPOTLIGHT SERIES. For August we actually invited ourselves to the studio and had a great fun talking about our 2021 East meets West Conference. We talked about what motivated us to go to Poland and build a studio there, about moments we loved and moments we were sad about and of course, we went once again through the agenda and picked the most important messages from our speakers.

13. 

    16 May 2021

    East meets West SPOTLIGHT SERIES #8 with Veronika Valkovicova

    At the occasion of IDAHOBIT, The International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, we talked to renowned Slovak researcher and lecturer Veronika Valkovičová PhD about LGBTIQ Employee Resource Groups (ERGs): What do such ERGs stand for? Is this only a recent invention and what do we know about their roots? Why do these ERGs exist? What’s needed to make them an important part of an organisation? Created in 2004, IDAHOBIT draws the attention to the violence and discrimination experienced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex people and all other people with diverse sexual orientations, gender identities or expressions, and sex characteristics. Why May 17th? On this day in 1990 The World Health Organization decided to declassify homosexuality as a mental disorder.

14. 

    16 Mar 2021

    East meets West SPOTLIGHT SERIES #7 with Mateusz Gędźba and The Equality Signs Federation

    When it comes to LGBTIQ Diversity & Inclusion in Europe, Poland is the country that dominates the headlines... though with negative or even shocking news. For our 7th East meets West SPOTLIGHT SERIES we travelled (virtually) to Krakow, the second largest city in Poland, once the capital of Poland, now one of Europe's most beautiful cities. What is the situation in Poland right now? What drove once progressive CEE power-house to a country where we find over 100 "LGBT-Free Zones"? Where do local communities find the strength to fight and, is all so negative? We talked to Mateusz Gędźba who serves as the President of the Board at the FEDERACJA ZNAKI RÓWNOŚCI (Federation Signs of Equality (http://znakirownosci.org.pl/en)), and where looks after all legal and formal documentation and reviews and negotiates the contracts on behalf of the Federation. ZNAKI RÓWNOŚCI is the first Polish federation which brings together organisations that act for the LGBTIQ community. Their currently 9 member organisations run various initiatives, from cultural and artistic ones, through legal representation and assistance, to sport and health-related initiatives, and have all one in common: to build an open and diverse society, free from any sort of discrimination, in particular discrimination concerning sexuality and gender. PS: did you know Ludo worked in Poland? Does he have any interesting memories to share too? :))

15. 

    14 Feb 2021

    East meets West SPOTLIGHT SERIES #6 with Gay Happiness Project

    For our 6th series we had the pleasure of talking with Robert Hutchinson, the Co-founder of The Gay Happiness Project (www.gayhappinessproject.com (https://gate.sc/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gayhappinessproject.com&token=b5a2d4-1-1613313186057)). Robert is a transformational coach, leadership consultant, and founder of The Authentic Life Company who specialises in self-awareness and personal development. Since 2017 together with Christopher Samsa, who is a positive psychologist and senior consultant with the NeuroLeadership Institute, they have run The Gay Happiness Project, an impactful, modular program which brings together gay men in a positive, safe and non-therapeutic space. The program is based on a unique blend of mindfulness, applied neuroscience, positive psychology and self-compassion. Did you know that there are several Gay community challenges? For instance mental and emotional wellbeing is consistency poor among the gay male population, 13% of gay & bisexual men currently experience moderate to severe levels of depression & anxiety compared to 7% of all men. Compared to the general population, gay people aged 16+ are: 3x more likely to be diagnosed with depression, 3.5x more likely to be diagnosed with anxiety and 6 x more likely to have thoughts of suicide in their lifetime.

16. 

    22 Dec 2020

    East meets West SPOTLIGHT SERIES #5 with Daylight Bank and Rob Curtis

    In the 2020 East meets West SPOTLIGHT SERIES we offered to a variety of people the space to share with you their unique views or projects they are working on. For our 5th series we had the pleasure of talking with Rob Curtis, the CEO and Co-founder of the Daylight - Banking for LGBT+ people, by LGBT+ people. We got to know Rob as the driving force behind this retail banking innovation and got a great understanding of the "why" and "how" of the different way of banking the US LGBT+ community will be catered for by Daylight. Never heard of Daylight? Daylight (https://joindaylight.com/) is the first and only digital banking platform in the U.S. specifically designed for the LGBT+ community by the LGBT+ community. Daylight prepares members for the future faster by helping them to navigate the finance system, generate smarter habits, and connect with a community working together to build the life they deserve without compromise. PS: did you know that Ludo, who ran this SPOTLIGHT interview was also once a banker? In fact he is a legend in the finance industry in Europe. This brings a brilliant generation perspective to already great and entertaining interview :)

17. 

    17 Nov 2020

    East meets West SPOTLIGHT SERIES #4 with Randy Boissonnault

    We are back with our SPOTLIGHT SERIES, this time we meet and talked to famous Randy Boissonnault on how "the life after politics" (how Randy calls it) looks like. Randy Boissonnault is the former Canadian politician, former member of the Canadian Parliament for Edmonton Centre and the special Advisor to the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on LGBTIQ issues. He was one of the five openly LGBT MPs in Canada. We talked him about The Global Equality Caucus. Launched at the United Nations in New York City on 21 June 2019, The Global Equality Caucus (https://equalitycaucus.org/) is the international network of parliamentarians and elected representatives aiming to tackle discrimination against LGBTIQ people. PS: do not forget to watch or listen until the very end. Also this time the recording was so much fun! At the end of our interview, we somehow moved to a totally different topic... we learned about Randy's diet and source of his eternal energy, and we got tips on how to train for an IronMan! :)

18. 

    10 Nov 2020

    East meets West SPOTLIGHT SERIES #1 - Open for Business

    For our July 2020 SPOTLIGHT SERIES we invited someone we are very impressed by - the Open For Business coalition. Moreover, Open for Business started to build a data-driven economic case for LGBTI rights also in the Eastern Europe, our home-region. This first East meets West SPOTLIGHT SERIES gave the perfect opportunity not only to learn more about their CEE program, but through an interactive session to answer all questions.

19. 

    10 Nov 2020

    East meets West SPOTLIGHT SERIES #3 - CSR

    Happy national coming-out day!!! We are back with our SPOTLIGHT SERIES and this time with something very very special! More and more companies have Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), groups of employees who successfully drive the Workplace Inclusion in their professional environment. We consider it just a step in the direction of a fully developed Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) when companies consider it an integrated part of their core business. But is this the way to follow? Is the Corporate Social Responsibility really a huge opportunity for the LGBTIQ community? And if yes, how to get involved in it, how to ‘speak CSR’ when dealing with the business world?

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

1,368

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 35 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

30

Social presence

0

YouTube

68

Engagement

32

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Guest appearances

Books guests

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