One Young World
international audience.”
The conference aspect of One Young
World was put together by MCI Group,
which pooled talent from its
Netherlands and UK offices. The global
events agency provided event
management, volunteering,
transportation services and more.
Angela van Herk, One Young World
project lead at MCI The Netherlands,
commented: “We are proud to partner
with One Young World again to deliver
their transformative global Summit.
“This year, MCI The Netherlands
jointly collaborated with MCI UK,
adding value to our One Young World
relationship with fresh views, market
experience and local networks. It’s
incredibly rewarding to facilitate the
conversation that drives world change,
and bring the One Young World
Summit to life for its tenth anniversary
year in London.”
Left:
A London-centric
music act
Below:
An acrobat floats
over the audience
on a large, hoisted
balloon
room in which every seat is filled and
with a queue out the front door, is
charmingly nervous for such a public
figure. But her motivational words
might not even be needed for some in
the audience – many of these brilliant
young minds have already changed the
world.
A series of delegate speakers are
invited to address the audience that
afternoon. They are all responsible for
incredible projects addressing
environmental and social issues, despite
their young age.
Among these is a young man from
Nigeria, no older than 21, who founded
an outreach programme educating rural
areas of the country about HIV. He has
saved the lives of over 200 people to
date, and is now expanding the
education to include other diseases.
Also speaking was a young lady from
Palau who had founded a successful
small business selling homemade
sunscreen, with ingredients which don’t
contribute to coral bleaching in her
native region.
The stories of these highly driven
young people are enough to make me
feel a little bit inadequate by comparison
– but they are among the most
inspirational conference speakers I’ve
ever seen. One Young World is not
about talk, but about action: those in
attendance are not hypothesising, or
planning, or preaching. They are
making a difference right now, and
inspiring others to do the same.
Adam Blackwood is the creative
director and founder of Private Drama
Events, the company which organised
and staged the opening ceremony. He
says: “It couldn’t be more appropriate to
host One Young World now. With
Greta Thunberg blazing a trail, the
empowerment of young people is very
much of the moment. It’s important to
give young people a platform - they are
tomorrow’s leaders.
“One of the biggest organisational
challenges we had with the event was
time. We got in at four in the morning
on the day of the opening ceremony,
and put on a two-hour show. We have
over 250 performers in the cast, and
700 people backstage including all the
flag-bearers. All of it is to try and
showcase the culture of London to an
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