With the pandemic raging on everywhere, some of the more interesting discussions taking place remain online. Even though many people have been complaining about Zoom fatigue, there are quite a few newly engaging ways to meet interesting thinkers and doers online, with plenty of opportunities to hear from keynote speakers during plenaries and breakout sessions.
Online event organizers have also become more creative at crafting made-for-device-consumption performances, and that can lead to networking moments for those who want to understand where Africa may be headed after the world comes out of this current public health crisis.
We were very involved with the previous edition because the Future Summit remains one of our favorite online gatherings. This year’s edition, which is taking place on Thursday, October 7, 2021, from 12pm East Africa Time, will focus on positive social change across all of Africa.
The organizers’ intention is to “create a space for a vibrant community to spark new ideas and engage in provocative conversations.” This inspiring online convening and community-building event is powered by drivers of change across the continent, including TRUE Africa favorites Patrick Awuah, founder and President of Ashesi University in Accra, the London-based journalist June Sarpong, and Anand Giridharadas, the American journalist who wrote the controversial best-seller Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World.
Conceived by the Segal Family Foundation and the BMW Foundation, the promotion of the 2021 Future Summit centers around the fact that, despite challenges with in-person gatherings, the organizers believe it is “still important to create moments that inspire, spark imaginations, and celebrate the wealth of knowledge and impact on the continent to center our attention on the future we want.”
“The Future Summit is a space of people using their gifts, their talents, their commitment, and their passion to create a world for us to be seen, to be heard, to be safe, and to self-determine,” said Dedo Baranshamaje, Segal Family Foundation’s Director of Strategy-Africa.
You can register for the 2021 Future Summit here.