The first in-person meeting of the Innovative Training Network “Mapping Uncertainties, Challenges and Future Opportunities of Emerging Markets: Informal Barriers, Business Environment and Future Trends in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia (MARKETS)” took place in Istanbul, Turkey, on June 15-21, 2022. The project is funded by an MSCA grant of the European Union in the context of Horizon 2020 and coordinated at the University of Bremen by Heiko Pleines (Research Centre for East European Studies) and Michael Rochlitz. ITN MARKETS research fellows Ekaterina Vorobeva and Michael Richter and their supervisors Heiko Pleines and Michael Rochlitz attended the project meeting and met other fellows from the University of Maastricht, the University of Leuven, the UCL and other institutions across Europe. Many project partners of the ITN MARKETS flew to Istanbul to make presentations about their activities; among them were Jeremy Drucker from Transitions (Czech Republic), one of Central and Eastern Europe's leading media development organizations, and Irina Guruli from Economic Policy Research Center (Georgia).