Conference & Meetings World Issue 103 | Page 31

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 ISSUE 103 / CONFERENCE & MEETINGS WORLD / 31