Bogotá hosted the One Young World Summit 2017 event
Thanks to the application made by the Greater Bogotá Convention Bureau with the support of the Bogota Chamber of Commerce, the Colombian capital was chosen as the headquarters of One Young World Summit, which was held from October 4 to 7, 2017 in Ágora Bogotá .
This youth leadership summit, the most important of its kind worldwide, annually convenes people who are between 18 and 30 years of age and who have developed high-impact projects in their respective countries of origin.
As the page of One Young World Summit points out, the initiative was born in 2009 by Kate Robertson and David Jones, who worked alongside leading Ghanaian economist and world leader Kofi Annan, with the purpose of raising awareness about climate change.
On this occasion, 1,300 young people from 194 countries attended the city of Bogotá, said El Tiempo newspaper.
All of them were fortunate to receive advice from former heads of state, Nobel Prize winners, renowned scientists, economists and managers of important multinational chains.
Some of the most prominent advisers who traveled to the Colombian capital to accompany and share their experiences at the event were singer Cher, film and theater director Stephen Daldry, musician and activist Bob Geldof, social entrepreneur Muhammad Yunus and Kofi Annan himself.
These great personalities, according to information from the Chamber of Commerce of Bogotá, worked side by side with young people to discuss six global issues: education, environment, poverty reduction, leadership and government, and peace and security.
The importance of the summit
Since its creation in 2009, One Young World Summit has positively impacted 14.6 million people worldwide, thanks to the programs devised by the summit ambassadors, explains the newspaper El Tiempo.
Likewise, it is worth noting that this is the NGO that brings together the most companies worldwide. In fact, as the organization itself states, One Young World Summit is the second most important event that Latin America hosts in terms of internationalization, after the Olympic Games.
Bogotá, when hosting the summit, joins a select list of other cities that did the same in the past, including London (United Kingdom), Zurich (Switzerland), Pittsburgh (United States), Johannesburg (South Africa) , Dublin (Ireland), Bangkok (Thailand) and Ottawa (Canada).
In this way, the capital of Colombia demonstrates the country's ability to organize large events, and to be a strategic point that allows developing initiatives and solutions according to the new challenges posed by the 21st century.