2019

JSC “Latvia's State Forests” Supports Innovations at the Digital Freedom Festival

The fifth annual Digital Freedom Festival brings together over 1 500 authors of new technologies and innovative ideas, experts, startups and investors to discuss the role of people in the technology age, the future economy and green technologies. For the first time, JSC “Latvia's State Forests” (LVM) also participated as a partner to evaluate the ideas of startups in the Green Tech Pitch competition and to tell those present about LVM innovations.

“One of the driving forces behind LVM's growth and excellence is undoubtedly the ability of the company and their employees to stay up to date, develop and use new technologies, work with new business models, and learn. LVM is an innovative company that uses state-of-the-art technologies in its everyday work and is interested in working with different partners,” Ilga Anita Bērzkalna, Head of Development at LVM, tells about the event.

By participating in a panel discussion with representatives of innovation and startup companies from Germany and the Netherlands, Ilga Anita Bērzkalna had the opportunity to evaluate LVM and all of Latvia's potential for further innovation on an ever-larger scale: “According to foreign experts, companies that have been operating in a sector with minimal changes for 40 years or more will soon be tired. LVM has just celebrated 20 years of continuous change and innovation!”

The Green Tech Pitch is testing the green ideas

To support the development of environmentally friendly technology solutions, LVM, in cooperation with the EIT Climate-KIC accelerator, organized a startup pitch competition for companies that have chosen green technologies for their business development.

Amplicam, Latvia's new company, won the Green Tech Pitch green technology competition, offering a fire detection and monitoring system. The company was awarded the opportunity to gain knowledge and understanding together with Latvia's state forest mentors and an invitation to participate in Latvia's State Forest Innovation Day 2020.

A number of startups took part in the Green Tech Pitch competition. Three participants presented their business ideas in the finals: OddBot (the Netherlands), Have a Tree (Latvia) and Amplicam (Latvia).

Uldis Leiterts, co-founder of the Digital Freedom Festival and a jury representative of the startup competition, pointed out that more and more investors and funds have been attracting the Baltics to their area of interest, as there are many mature startups that have found unique and innovative solutions to serious problems.

LVM GEO introduces opportunities and benefits

The story of the Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) during the discussion “100 Ways to Use Geospatial Intelligence” by LVM experts and clients from JSC “Augstsprieguma tīkls”, the Food and Veterinary Service and Forestry Services Cooperative Society “Mežsaimnieks” agreed that LVM GEO is a very diverse technology that can be adapted to different sectors.

“LVM GEO is an IT platform created by our company that enables planning, management and control of resource management (not just forest land), and the maintenance and analysis of geo-referenced data. Spatial relationships and visual representation of data on maps allow you to see the regularities, to be more efficient in the decision-making process. This IT, or more precisely GIT (geospatial information technology) platform, is not only suitable for forest land management, but can also be used in other sectors such as agriculture, engineering, tourism and even veterinary control. In companies where the LVM GEO platform has been implemented, it has become a daily work tool, both in the field and in the office,” tells Katrīna Amerika, LVM GEO Geospatial Solutions Project Manager.

The development of the LVM platform is planned to be very versatile, increasingly integrating other geospatial information technologies: drone-derived information processing and display, satellite image analysis with machine learning algorithms, real-time data processing, improving existing and developing new applications, integrations. “Our goal is to customize the platform not only for the needs of other industries in Latvia, but also to export it as a product and service abroad”, Katrīna Amerika shares company’s future plans.

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Insight into the Digital Freedom Festival

The Digital Freedom Festival 2019 focuses on sustainable development and the impact of technology - how to use technology for the benefit of the people, based on the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.

This year, the festival took place on four stages: one stage was dedicated to future topics, such as how the world is fighting poverty, migration and health issues. The second stage was used for discussions about the future of the media, on the third stage startups presented their business ideas to potential investors, whereas on the fourth stage there was lively discussion and sharing of experiences in innovations and other topics.