Top education professionals and politicians from the Baltic states will soon be descending on Cambridge for the second Cambridge Baltic Conference (CBC).

The conference will feature leading figures in the world of education, such as Latvia’s former minister for science and education, Dr Robert Ķīlis, and rector of the University of Latvia, Professor Marcis Auzins.

The latter is also an elected member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences, whilst a benefactor of Cambridge’s own Judge Business School, Sir Paul Judge, will also be in attendance. In addition, Judge is president of the Association of MBAs, an international authority on postgraduate education, and a former Sheriff of London. More speakers are still yet to be announced.

The conference is set to take place on the 10th and 11th of October at the Cambridge Union Society. The conference, organized jointly by the university’s Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian societies, is focused principally on "innovation in education".        

The conference will feature debates, discussions and interactive workshops in which audience members can interact with experts from the Baltic States. Its aims include generating a "nexus of ideas that will combine the knowledge, creativity and experience of students, the business community and academics".

The organisers behind the conference hope that student participation will be integral, hoping to "empower" students through a series of interactive workshops. Each debate will feature a student selected from the workshop stages to interact with the invited guest speakers, a decision which CBC hopes will"‘encourage everyone to always think of themselves as students, who continuously learn and go forward".

Such panel discussions and student-led projects will develop topics such as "Best Practices in Higher Education" and conflict between traditionally ‘Western’ and ‘Eastern’ methods of education.

This is the second year of the annual conference. CBC 2013 focussed on the relationship between Baltic states and the EU, with the former President of Lithuania and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, Valdas Adamkus, as its most high profile speaker.

Tickets are available now from cambridgebalticconference.eu.