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Innovators, job-seekers invited to attend Campus Party Digital

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 08 Jul 2020

The 2020 edition of international jobs festival Campus Party is going digital and will make its online debut in SA.

Founded in 1997 as a global innovation and creativity festival, Campus Party brings together business leaders, visionaries, close-knit communities, higher education and institutions to form a global community.

It seeks to help thousands of young people find work by issuing a global call for ideas to connect young innovators around the world, so they can work together to rewrite the planet's source code.

The event was first held in Málaga, Spain, and has since held more than 80 editions in 15 countries across the globe, including Italy, Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico.

This year’s digital event, punted as the largest for innovators in history, will be hosted simultaneously in more than 30 countries around the world from 9 July to 11 July. It provides three days of live, on-demand conferences, with one global main stage and five topical stages.

Around 30 million viewers will come together simultaneously and enjoy a mix of online talks, virtual experiences, product launches and a single global challenge with the aim to connect all the young innovators around the globe so that they can work together to identify great, technologically-grounded ideas in response to the myriad challenges humanity is facing today – particularly in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the event organisers.

The main stage will showcase over 50 internationally-renowned keynote speakers, including Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web and CTO and co-founder of Inrupt; Vinton G Cerf, VP and chief Internet evangelist at Google; Al Gore, former VP of the US; Dr Marsha Maxwell, head of technology and innovation at Atlanta International School; and Isabella Grandic, futurist activator at The Knowledge Society.

Entrepreneur Sharron McPherson, founder of The Future Education Foundation, brought Campus Party to Africa. He believes the event could help young South Africans in a strained job market to find innovative new ways of making a living, and ultimately, revitalise an economy that is sorely in need of a boost.

“In a world that has had to find new ways of working due to the pandemic, Campus Party Digital Edition is an amazing opportunity for the global community to invent novel ways of adapting our lifestyles through technology, that will mould our society for decades to come. This event is the ultimate brain trust that could plant the seed for a more collaborative global community in the long-term and we can’t wait to see the results,” says McPherson.

Each participating country will host five topical stages, where more than 2 000 guests will alternate. The featured stages are: Green Power, Living Better, Work Life, New Horizons and Joy of Life.

The stages focus on various areas, including clean energy and environment, health and science, work and economics, education, smart cities, entertainment and creativity.

The common thread throughout the event and the speeches on the global main stage will centre around "Rebooting the World", say the event organisers. This will address the challenges of climate emergency and, more importantly, how the pandemic has prompted humanity to rethink and reassess the concept of normality.

"Reboot the World" will also be the title of the event’s global call for ideas, involving thousands of Campus Party participants, who will come up with out-of-the-box solutions and ideas to solve humanity’s current challenges.

Participation is free for the public, who will voluntarily be able to support the fundraising organised by Campus Party Digital Edition, in partnership with Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières. All proceeds will go towards helping the families of healthcare workers who have lost their lives during the coronavirus pandemic.

To participate in Campus Party Digital Edition, register here.

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