Dear friends!

Thank you to 1325 of you from 56 countries who gathered in for Lions Europa Forum 2019 in Estonia! Your participation made it possible for us to bring this forum to life and we hope you enjoyed your time in Tallinn. We were very proud to show off all of you at our flag parade as it was unforgettable to see all the flags and so many people march through the streets of Tallinn.

The forum was 3 days of intense discussions, meetings and sharing ideas among fellow Lions and Leos at the Market of Ideas. As it was the first time EF took place in our country, we wanted to bring some of the Estonian innovative mindset into the program. We had keynotes and world cafes focusing on the three main topics: circular economy, healthy youth and cyber solutions. The main goal of our program was to bring everyone together around a discussion table to come up with common ideas and new solutions to take back to your home country. We hope that you met a lot of new friends and learned something new. Also, we wanted to bring special attention to the first time participants of the forum – the newcomers. At a workshop just for them, we tried to help them to understand what the forum is and get to know each other. We really hope that this session and overall the discussion format will carry on into future Europa Forums also.

An essential part of every forum is also the social program. We kicked the forum off with a charity warm up party at Tallinn Creative Hub. It was great to see so many old and new friends in Tallinn having a great time. At the opening ceremony, we showed you how Estonia fits into Europe with a selection of fabulous music pieces and performances followed by a host night showcasing our cuisine and music. The gala was one for the history books – I will never forget the night of dancing with my friends under a submarine and I truly hope that neither will you. And at the closing ceremony, we brought some modern interpretations of classical music to you by the top artists from Estonia. We hope that all of this gave you a glimpse into what our culture has to offer and you enjoyed this time!

As Lions and Leos, the motto ‘we serve’ has brought us all together. And together we managed to collect more than €12 000 in donations that will be spent on training 12 diabetic alert dogs for less fortunate young people! This will make an immense difference in their lives and it is all because of you!

We, the Estonian Lions and Leos, were very happy to welcome you in our beautiful country for the very first time, but I really hope that not for the last time.

Yours truly,

Kalle Elster

Lions Europa Forum 2019 President