A busy week, with a quick trip to Latvia followed by a visit from the OECD, a wine tasting and just work. Most of the photos are from the 36 hours or so that I spent in Latvia’s capital Riga, where I was participating in a panel during a conference on innovation organised by Latvia’s Patent Office to celebrate its 105th anniversary. If that strikes you as a strange anniversary to celebrate, keep in mind that the 100th anniversary was in 2020, when organising any kind of event was impossible.
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I flew to Riga on Monday afternoon, a direct flight from Alicante, taking a bit over 4 hours. By the time I arrived at my hotel it was close to midnight; fortunately, its bar, located on the 26th floor with nice views of Riga, is open until 1 a.m., so I could rehydrate after the flight. The conference was starting Tuesday morning, and the venue was about 1 km from the hotel, providing for a nice, crispy walk. This is my hotel:
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Across the street from the hotel was a park surrounding the main Orthodox church of Riga. About 1/3 of Latvia’s population are ethnic Russians, and the influence of the church is quite tangible:
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A tree in the park:
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A rare sight in a European city–the electric rental scooters parked properly:
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I approached the site of the conference, the Small Guild, a beautiful guild house for the tradesmen (the merchants had another building, the Large Guild), built in the mid-19th century, reflecting Riga’s past as a member of the Hanseatic League:
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Like most other important buildings in Riga, the Small Guild was decorated with the Latvian and Ukrainian flags. The feeling of solidarity with Ukraine is very strong in the Baltic countries, all of which were occupied by the Soviet Union for many decades:
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Inside the Small Guild, the conference participants were getting their coffee and doing some initial socializing:
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The event is about to start, and people begin to trickle in to the beautiful conference room:
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Agris Batalauskis, the director of the Patent Office of the Republic of Latvia, waiting for the conference to open. Agris is a very nice guy, and at 40, one of the youngest heads of an IP office anywhere:
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Many members of Riga’s guilds were German, and the building reflects that heritage:
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The panel in which I participated is about to start. Besides me, the other panelists were Michael Mbogoro from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Liga Žūka from Riga University, Maris Būmanis from a Latvian innovation organization, Liga Braslina from another Latvian university, yours truly, and Yann Ménière, Chief Economist of the European Patent Office. We were moderated by Ilze Grava, Director of Development and International Cooperation from the Latvian Patent Office:
(photo courtesy the Patent Office of the Republic of Latvia)
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Yann and I discussing something in the panel. We have known each other for several years and have a very good professional and personal relationship:
(photo courtesy the Patent Office of the Republic of Latvia)
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Afterwards, the panel posed for a mug shot:
(photo courtesy the Patent Office of the Republic of Latvia)
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One of joys of going to Riga was the opportunity to see my friend Linda. Linda (on the left) is a lawyer at the patent office, and I have known her since 2014. She has been on maternity leave for several months, so she has not attended any of the meetings we host in Alicante that usually provide us with an opportunity to have dinner and a drink. She is still on maternity leave but came to the conference. Here she poses with members of her team:
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The conference ended in late afternoon, and I walked a bit in the old city. A rare bilingual sign, proclaiming that this building once housed a church (from the 14th century onwards) and is now a listed building. Normally signs and everything else in Riga is in Latvian only, but here the plaque is in Latvian and Russian (which is what makes it possible for me to read it since I do not speak a word of Latvian):
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During the lunch break I had popped out for a quick walk and came across this bar which struck me as an ideal place for a post-conference beer. So I went there after the conference, and some of the other participants had the same idea:
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In the evening the patent office put on a conference dinner, and I had the pleasure of Linda’s company at my table, as well as some other lovely ladies from Latvia:
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The photographer hired by the patent office was also at the dinner. I think this is the first time ever that I post four photos of me in the weekly blog:
(photo courtesy the Patent Office of the Republic of Latvia)
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On Wednesday morning I got up at an obscenely early hour to catch a flight to Stockholm and on to Alicante, so no photos of that day. On Thursday I was back at work, and we were visited by Piotr, a senior economist from the OECD. Taking advantage of the reasonable weather, we took Piotr for lunch at Hostal Maruja. The wind was blowing strongly but the temperature was pleasant and the terrace was sealed against the wind:
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This man apparently did not mind having sand blown at him:
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Piotr (left) and my collaborator Michał, two Polish economists enjoying Mediterranean food:
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To further test my stamina, that evening the Bacchus wine club had its monthly wine tasting, this time a very interesting one of wines made from indigenous grapes around Spain (so no merlot or cabernet in sight). The presenter was very serious and knowledgeable:
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My Italian colleague Paola:
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Cheers!
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Saturday started windy and misty, and during the night various things washed up onto the beach:
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Later in the morning, my daughter indulged in her weekend habit of a long, leisurely coffee and reading session at a nearby café, accompanied by Mochi. I rode by at the start of my bike ride:
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This was the first time Mochi had seen my on a bicycle, but he did come to greet me after some initial hesitation:
The Riga gallery can be seen here.