Why this festival?

Covid-19 is a huge tragedy which has also dramatically revealed the weaknesses and lack of sustainability in our current economic models. Across the globe, people are realising that we owe it to those who have suffered to use the recovery to build back better – to find new ways of organising our economies to address inequality and the ecological crisis we face.

We want diverse young people from around the world, bringing their ideas and lived experience, to have a bigger voice by co-creating their own proposals as to what building back better should look like. And this is not just for those who have studied economics. We all live in economies and they interact with politics, society, the ecology, design, racism, sexism etc. The more diverse the perspectives, the better the thinking.

Of course, given the circumstances, this summer festival is different:

• The amazing digital platform we are using gives you the power to meet who you want to and easily join the discussions you are interested in. You can get a taste of it here, but ours will be a bespoke design by an award winning architectural graduate.
• You have the power to decide what speakers we have and what we discuss.  If you nominate a speaker that is chosen, you get to ask the first question on the ‘stage’ with them.
• Anyone from around the world can be involved without having to travel at their expense and the expense to the environment. So you will meet and hear from people you never normally would.

Who is this for?

If you are 25 and under, enjoy meeting new people, discussing ideas and are looking to find a purposeful career in these challenging times, then this is for you…

• It’s not only about collaborating to develop proposals, but also the thrill of your ideas being heard by world-renowned experts.
• Our final competition is designed for you to have fun – the prize is making your view of change influential…AND, other tangible benefits are likely to follow too!
• You’ll have the chance to make new friends, build important connections and hear new ideas.
• It’s a great opportunity to develop careers with purpose and avoid so called ‘Bullshit’ jobs – difficult enough anyway, but even more so with the current constrictions.
• Make this summer really matter – not a hiccup!

If you are over 25, enjoy using your expertise to help develop new ideas, want to expand your leadership and communication skills and energise your own thinking with fresh views, then you should join as a mentor. In this role you can work with younger participants to develop and refine proposals and help them to find a future career with purpose in these challenging times. We will brief you and support you in carrying out this role, and you can indicate the level of involvement you can offer. See more here.

Register now to get further information and you will immediately be able to:

• Join a private LinkedIn group so you can communicate and network with other participants.
• Get a FREE quarterly subscription to our magazine, The Mint, packed with material to inspire you.

***NB THIS DOES NOT COMMIT YOU TO ENTERING A PROPOSAL, BUT WE HOPE YOU WILL.***

If your organisation (whether business, NGO or university department) could be interested in being a Sponsor or Partner, please contact us here.  This could be an opportunity to introduce your organisation to talented and creative people from around the world and support them in creating a better future.

How will it work?

The Festival will be online starting on the 27th July and running into October using a cutting edge platform that puts Zoom in the shade – see here to get an initial idea except ours will be a bespoke designed virtual space.

You will be given an introduction to the platform and process so you know exactly what is going on. We are still developing the programme but there will be a number of half day sessions each week designed to allow participation from the eastern and western hemispheres. They will involve workshops, talks, networking and more. Your level of involvement is up to you.

On this platform participants can take control of how they get involved from collaborating on tables, general networking to listening to presentations. You can ‘move around’ in the virtual space to find who you want to talk to and what you want to do.

It will have three phases:

1. Co-create: Collaboration amongst participants in August to develop practical proposals to build back better to be entered into this platform.
2. Reflect: The proposals will then be open to feedback and development before the better ones are chosen to be presented in webinars in September.
3. Refine: The best proposals in each webinar will then go to the final round to be developed and refined prior to selection by a high profile panel to be presented in the final seminar in early October prior and then to be put to a public vote.

During this whole time there will be..

• Presentations by leading thinkers and actors chosen by participants using this platform here.  If you nominate a speaker and they present, you can ask the first question ‘on stage’ with the speaker; and
• Opportunities to meet and find out about our mentors, partners and sponsors and to discuss your career.

What sort of proposals are we looking for?

We are looking for proposals:

• Demonstrating original practical thinking about the economy drawing on diverse perspectives both from academia and experience – we all live in economies after all…
• Responding to the changes in the socio, political and economic context due to the pandemic…
• Addressing the ecological crisis, social fragmentation and/or economic dysfunction….
• Communicated in an engaging and creative way.

So for instance, you need to go beyond proposing a ‘Green New Deal’ and be more specific focussing on more particular issues or sectors. Clearly we would expect proposals to draw on the many existing ideas in circulation. Better proposals would be expected to draw from a range of different ideas to create new compelling and practical propositions.  We will look for proposals to identify clearly what they see in the current context that creates the potential for their proposal to succeed. We will provide you with a range of support to develop proposals.

Proposals, using 3,000 characters, a compelling image and a 150s video, have to be entered by individuals or teams here. We believe proposals generated by diverse groups are likely to be better. Mentors, partners and sponsors will assist in their assessment.