Van Damme: The Absence of a Smile Is Hostile to Human Nature

Jean-Claude Van Damme joins FORUM ONE, major European leadership and business conference and its social mission to raise $240K, enough to cover 1,000 surgeries for children who, due to facial deformity, can't smile.

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Forum One

Oct 20, 2014, 09:15 ET

VILNIUS, Lithuania, Oct. 20, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- An actor, director, producer and screenwriter knows how important a smile is in a career and life.

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"The ability to smile is an integral part of life," said Van Damme. "The absence of a smile is hostile to our nature, to the joy. You must have a strange feeling when you see a child or an adult, who can't smile and you can. So I want to help. I became famous and I need to use it for good causes."

FORUM ONE together with celebrity guest Jean-Claude Van Damme, keynote speaker Seth Godin and all other speakers, including C level managers from Microsoft, Facebook and BMW, invite hundreds of thousands of people across the planet to unite and bring back 1,000 smiles for children.

The major European conference aims to raise $240,000, enough to cover 1,000 surgeries for children of Operation Smile. FORUM ONE will be held Oct. 23-25, 2014 in Vilnius, Lithuania. It will attract more than 4,000 businessmen, managers, leaders and professionals from Central and Eastern Europe.

FORUM ONE has launched anIndiegogo campaign so that donations can be accepted from people all over the world. Contributions of any amount are welcome at the Indiegogo page which can be viewed at www.indiegogo.com/projects/forum-one-1-000-smiles-challenge.

FORUM ONE is providing perks to encourage donations. For $24, backers can choose to watch one keynote speech of the conference. Larger pledges are rewarded with increased free access to the conference livestream. For $2,400, you can receive a VIP ticket to the Oct. 24 closing event in Vilnius, featuring Van Damme as a guest speaker.

"The amazing story of Blake Mycoskie and TOMS has made a huge impact in the way we do business and organize events," said Darius Jonauskas, Martynas Saikus and Vladas Lasas, co-founders of FORUM ONE. "We've started something that matters and every year FORUM ONE will choose one inspiring social cause to support."

The first FORUM ONE conference in 2013 featured Sir Richard Branson as a special guest speaker and attracted over 4,000 people to live event.

"Thanks to Future Virgin Galactic Astronaut Vladas Lasas for inviting to Lithuania and organizing a great talk at a leadership forum. I do 20 of these talks a year around the world to raise money for charity and it was fun to share my experiences with so many energized people," wrote Sir Richard Branson in his blog post after visiting Lithuania (http://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/visiting-lithuania).

Official FORUM ONE social mission partner Operation Smile (www.operationsmile.org), headquartered in Virginia Beach, VA, has a presence in more than 60 countries and a network of more than 5,400 medical volunteers. Since its inception in 1982, the organization has provided more than 220,000 free surgical procedures.

For additional information, visit www.indiegogo.com/projects/forum-one-1-000-smiles-challenge or the official social mission website www.forumone.co/1000smiles.

For media inquiries, please write [email protected].

Contact:
Darius Jonauskas
Forum One
+37068603424
Email
www.forumone.co/1000smiles

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SOURCE Forum One