LEADx Leadership Accelerator

Policymakers, entrepreneurs, diplomats and civil society representatives gathered in Tbilisi for the 2023 edition of LEADx Change to explore how to overcome some of the core challenges to democracy and good governance in Central and Eastern Europe and beyond.

A collaborative project between IWPR and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, LEADx is an education and networking platform for emerging, mid-career and senior leaders from anywhere in the world. Established in 2019, LEADx aims to strengthen multi-industry leaders’ capacity to make better decisions, negotiate for mutual gain and connect with other impact-makers internationally.

The first in-person LEADx since the inaugural edition due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the five-day June event brought over 200 multi-industry executives together to discuss technology-enabled democracy, digital diplomacy, malign influence, disinformation, governance, entrepreneurship and leadership.

“It is the first post Covid-19, it is the first following of the full-scale Russian invasion on Ukraine,” said Anthony Border, IWPR’s executive director. “It is the time to get together exactly when it is needed to really look at core challenges that the world, but particularly the region, is facing and to see how everybody can express their agency and come closer together to preserve, protect and rebuild the society that we all cherish so much which is open, free and democratic.”

Highlights included the Leadership Accelerator, a three and a-half-day in-person exercise in which 28 mid-career and senior leaders from eight eastern European countries engaged in tailored sessions focusing on negotiation, decision-making, strategic communication, cybersecurity and digital diplomacy.

“It has been really interesting to learn the perspectives and the dynamism within the region of young leaders who are dealing with these very real problems that in the west people just talk about very abstractly, whereas here they deal with it day-to-day,” said Helen Zhang, an executive at the New York-based Schmidt Futures philanthropic organisation, who spoke at some of the sessions.

A number of expositions showcased technological advancements, including tools for election verification, open-source investigation and geospatial maps for identifying malign interference. 

Leading organisations like NewsGuard Technologies, the German Marshall Fund, and the US Department of State’s Global Engagement Centre demonstrated tools for news integrity, media monitoring and tracking authoritarian interference. TNET and Zinc Network showcased offerings such as the SuperApp and Enagram OCR Tool which enhance digital engagement and efficiency.

“It was inspiring to share our methodology of ratings news sites and spotting false claims online…and to hear thoughts and ideas on what makes news reliable,” said Chine Labbe, managing editor and partnership’ vice-President at NewsGuard, a journalism and technology tool that tracks online misinformation. “[And] it was fascinating to discuss our work on Russian disinformation with professionals from Ukraine, Moldova, Romania and Georgia in a part of the world where it is so close and real.”

Amy Larsen, director of strategy of Microsoft’s Democracy Forward team, agreed, adding, “It is really exciting to see the energy and the positive commitment to the different aspects of digital diplomacy and information integrity and thinking of practical take away as well as finding a community of similarly minded people and future leaders.”

Speakers and instructors included academics and corporate executives. From the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, LEADx was joined by Abigail Linnington, a professor in the International Security Studies programme; Bhaskar Chakravorti, the dean of Global Business; and Max Bevilacqua, a lecturer in negotiation.

Discussions, workshops and presentations gave participants the opportunity to fine tune their and decision-making skills, joining the LEADx’s alumni network which comprises nearly 120 graduates from around 15 countries.

Chakravorti emphasised that innovation and tech could not replace inter-person networking.

“Together with technology we also need real human beings, people need to associate missions with individuals, so one of my hopes is that in gatherings like these there are some natural leaders that emerge who then become the face of initiatives and movements and programmes,” he said. “You don’t have to go to Davos, this is literally a grass roots set up.