This year’s 2-day programme explores how technology is driving unprecedented change in how investors design and structure their international growth strategies, how they decide about investment and divestment and how leading IPAs are increasingly turning to technology to maximize the value investors bring to their host economy.
Day 1 – Unpacking tech-powered Aftercare
Wednesday June 4th, 2025 - from 08:00 to 18:06
Programme:
Opening by Convener
Welcome Remarks by Host City
Setting the scene for Tech-powered aftercare
àHow technology & geopolitics are changing the demands for Aftercare
Speaker: Jakob Hensing – Head of Political Economy at the Global Public Policy Institute
Investment decisions today take place amid rapid technological change and deep political uncertainty. Regulatory frameworks on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and related tools struggle to keep pace with the development of available offers, resulting in a lack of clarity and compliance challenges on top of the demands of technology adoption itself. In parallel, governments continue to view inbound investment as a strategic necessity, while becoming increasingly vigilant about potential security vulnerabilities and unintentional technology transfer abroad. This talk examines these trends from an investor Aftercare perspective and outlines practical steps that investment promotion agencies can take to modernise their support offerings in a challenging global environment.
àThe new global business services: From back offices to front agenda
Speaker: Kim Leandersson – Head of Riga GBS at RS Group
AI and robotics haven’t just changed what Global Business Services (GBS) does, they’ve changed what it could become. What began with the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) wave, which promised transformation but often delivered digitised bureaucracy, is now evolving into an AI-driven era that is genuinely reshaping how shared services relate to HQ and local markets.
For investment promotion agencies, this shift is significant. Organisations that succeed with GBS today combine powerful tools with a culture of curiosity and a willingness to experiment, turning the back office into a competitive advantage for multinational enterprises. This session provides an honest before-and-after picture of GBS and explores how these changes can be unlocked in practice.
àTechnology-driven value chain assessments
Speaker: Bhaskar Reddy – CEO and Founder of Growth Box Consulting
As investors increasingly base location decisions on execution certainty and ecosystem strength, real-time insight into post establishment performance is key for effective business support services. This session will unpack how digital tools and data analytics are used to map and monitor key value chain components such as supplies, operations, suppliers, logistics, skills, and markets, helping identify early warning signals, bottlenecks, and expansion opportunities. Participants will gain practical insights on how IPAS and EDOs integrate value chain intelligence into Aftercare workflows, improve coordination across public stakeholders, and measure the long-term FDI impact in a technology-driven investment landscape.
DEEP DIVE INTO AFTERCARE – WHERE IS THE INDUSTRY TODAY?
àThe morning after: why the real work of investment promotion begins once the investors arrives
Speaker: Craig Turp – Head of Insight and Analysis at Reinvantage
The champagne has been drunk, the press release issued, the minister photographed. Then what? For most investment promotion agencies, the honest answer is: not enough. The gap between landing an investor and securing long-term investment is often where investment promotion strategies succeed or fail.
The most effective IPAs close that gap with smarter, more transparent data, sharper technology, and partnerships that turn one-off deals into lasting commitments. Drawing on findings from the Reinvantage Investment Promotion Playbook, this session explores how agencies can strengthen Aftercare and turn initial investment into sustained engagement. And it doesn’t need to cost a fortune: the morning after matters more than the night before.
àThe challenges of and challenging in Aftercare
Speakers: Tommy Fanning – Consultant
Aftercare professionals know that maintaining an existing client is often easier than winning a new one. Ireland’s experience illustrates the balance of addressing the challenges clients face while also encouraging them to explore what more they could do. This session examines how technology can support this process, as well as the role of personal interaction, and explores how the need to challenge the client has developed as a tool in the Aftercare arena over time.
AFTERCARE ADVANTAGES: Breakout Sessions
àThe Talent Advantage (Room 1)
• Talent that drives business and social value
Speaker: Denise Gonzales – CEO of EqualReach
Today’s multinationals scale through blended workforce models – core employees, specialised contractors, project-based teams, and distributed digital talent – yet most Aftercare services and investment promotion strategies still focus primarily on traditional hiring pathways. This session offers an implementing partner’s perspective on building a global marketplace that connects previously overlooked work-ready, vetted teams of tech talent from refugee and displaced communities into multinational supply chains. It will explore how operational and procurement budgets – across development finance institutions, funds, and portfolio companies – can be intentionally deployed to unlock talent that improves portfolio resilience and performance, while simultaneously driving reportable social value.
• Developing a local talent pipeline: Riga Tech Girls.
Speaker: Anna Andersone – Founder of Riga Tech Girls and Startup School
This session will explore how inclusive talent development strengthens competitiveness and supports innovation-driven growth, with practical insights on building future skills and collaborative talent ecosystems that benefit investors and society.
àThe Tech Advantage (Room 2)
• Technology-driven Aftercare: Leveraging technologies for results
Speaker: Juan Pablo Alcantar – Director Econ Dev., City of Tuxpan, Mexico
Investment promotion agencies are increasingly technology driven, using data and analytics to maximise results and generate a higher multiplier-effect. This session presents best practices in current technologies and their impact on retaining and expanding businesses and jobs, while supporting a resilient and dynamic economy. Technology now drives key Aftercare functions: identifying new trends and investment opportunities, establishing early warning systems, targeting tailored Aftercare services and incentives, managing relationships, and accessing new markets. Using rich case studies, this session exemplifies how high performing IPAs and EDOs adapt quickly to new technologies, conscious that the practice has transitioned from a manual to a technology intensive one.
àThe Screening Advantage (Room 3)
• Investment screening from an Aftercare perspective
Speaker: Christine Graham – Partner in Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner and co-founder of EUFDI Association
As foreign investment screening regimes expand globally, Aftercare professionals increasingly operate at the intersection of investor support and regulatory compliance. This session explores how FDI screening impacts investors not only at entry but throughout their growth journey in host economies. It covers key legal triggers, sector-specific sensitivities, and emerging regulatory trends, while highlighting practical strategies to navigate approvals efficiently. The discussion will focus on how early engagement, proactive guidance, and strong collaboration between IPAs, legal advisors, and investors can prevent delays, mitigate risk, and strengthen long-term investor relationships in an evolving security environment.
AFTERCARE Best Practices
àBest Practices from around the world.
Speaker: IPAs from around the world present their local aftercare practices, how they lever opportunities and solved challenges.
àOrchestration Skills: what can we learn from music
Latvia is a singing nation and music is a usual feature in their activities. In this workshop we will learn how choir directors bring people together and reflect how these skills can help IPAs work with their local ecosystem. No singing skills required.
àWrap-up and closure of the Day 1.
DAY 2.
Thursday June 4th, 2026
Day 2 – Peer to peer learning
As the world faces multiple crises, this year’s programme highlights how working closely with established investors strengthen the local business fabric and increases economic resilience in a highly dynamic FDI context.
From 08:00 to 18:00
Programme:
Opening Day 2 by Host City
Reflections of Day 1 by Convener
LEARNING from the host country
àHow From Aftercare to Ecosystems Architects: Reinventing the Role of IPAs.
Speaker: Laura Štrovalde – Deputy Director General at LIAA
As global competition for investment intensifies, the role of investment promotion agencies is evolving from service delivery to ecosystem design. This session will present how Latvia has strengthened its institutional capacity by establishing dedicated teams focused on investor Aftercare, alongside specialised teams that support both investment attraction and Aftercare through tailored proposals, investment intelligence, and data-driven insights. It will explore how this integrated structure enables proactive investor support, informed decision-making, and the development of a coordinated investment ecosystem that fosters reinvestment, innovation, and long-term economic resilience.
àThe Baltic Advantage: Building a unified and resilient investment region.
Speaker: Representatives from the 3 Baltic IPAs.
A discussion on how Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania are strengthening cooperation to position the Baltic region as a stable and secure investment environment, aligning efforts in investment attraction, supply chain resilience, and strategic industry development. This session will explore what this collaboration means for Aftercare.
àThe investor voice: Real experiences of doing business in Latvia
Speaker: Foreign investors based in Latvia.
An open and candid discussion with international investors operating in Latvia, exploring their experience from entry to expansion and reinvestment, what drives investor confidence, and how aftercare and public-private cooperation support long-term growth.
LEARNINGS FROM ACROSS THE WORLD
àT A Management Framework for Competitiveness: Costa Rica's balance scord card.
Speaker: Cindy Vargas – Director of Business Environment at PROCOMER
In an international context marked by intensifying competition for investment, talent, and productivity, countries’ comparative advantage increasingly depends on their capacity for consistent, evidence-based execution. In this session, PROCOMER presents Costa Rica’s National Competitiveness Balanced Scorecard, a structured management framework designed to translate strategic priorities into measurable commitments and to systematically track key challenges affecting the investment environment and productive performance. The initiative seeks to strengthen execution capacity, enhance action traceability, and reinforce a results-oriented approach to public management.
àThe multinational mind: learnings from company decision-making in a volatile world
Speakers: Vinod Goel – CEO Jumia East Africa
Companies must reassess how they prioritise verticals and markets to assess their international footprint in times of uncertainty. At the same time, the partnership between multinational companies and IPAs/EDOs is evolving in response to growing uncertainty and volatility. Corporate investment decisions also have wider implications for economic development, while resilience practices from developing economies offer valuable lessons for more mature markets. This session provides a candid overview of insights from a seasoned international executive who has lead corporate openings and closures in Europe, Asia, and Africa, exploring what this means for Aftercare at the intersection of foreign direct investment, economic development, and corporate growth.
turning learnings into practice
àThe Aftercare Workshop
Moderator: Carolina Arriagada Peters
• Aftercare Workshop: practical exercises exploring how to incorporate strategic and technology trends learnt during the Forum to IPA’s daily practice.
• The hot seat: IPAs present their challenges to a board of expert Aftercare advisors, who provide guidance and feedback.
àThe Leadership Talk
Speaker: to be announced.
Reflections on leadership in a time of global shifts
àWrap-up of the Day 2 and closure of the Forum.
Riga 2026 Timetable
Wednesday June 3rd:
Tuesday June 2nd:
Thursday June 4th
Friday June 5th:
Informal welcome dinner
Aftercare Forum, Day 1
Welcome Dinner
Aftercare Forum, Day 2
Option to join EBRD activities.