By Marian Salzman, trendspotter.
In 2007, I told ‘60 Minutes’ that millennials, the generation of young people coming of age in the 21st century, could be incorrigible.
“You do have to speak to them a little bit like a therapist on television might speak to a patient,” I said to Morley Safer.
“You can’t really ask them to live and breathe the company, because they’re living and breathing themselves—and that keeps them very busy.”
Boy, what a difference three years makes. I’ve never been as optimistic as I am now about the power of young minds.
People aged under 30 changed the way we communicate, founding companies such as Google and Facebook.
They helped propel Barack Obama into the presidency, thereby starting to restore America’s stature in the world.
And they traded the ‘Me Generation’ materialism of their parents for a genuine passion for good, forcing businesses of all stripes to clean up their act and pay up on their promises of social responsibility.
As a trendspotter and marketing executive, I’ve studied youth culture for 20 years. I have no doubt that today’s teens and twentysomethings live in a world infinitely more complicated than anything the John Hughes Generation could imagine.
Yet they’re more than rising to the occasion. This is a group of advocates, not of narcissists; of leaders, not of followers.
That power of young minds will be amplified on February 8, 2010, when several hundred of the best and brightest from all 192 countries on Earth will gather in London for the inaugural One Young World summit.
Founded by Havas Worldwide Global CEO David Jones and Euro RSCG U.K. Group Chairman Kate Robertson, this is one of the most important global initiatives of our time—a Davos for the under-25 set, designed to bring a fresh take on the world’s most challenging issues and inspire hope and change.
This is not just another Model U.N. The delegates will debate and vote on draft resolutions regarding such topics as interfaith dialogue, the environment, global health and the changing media.
They will be guided and addressed by some of the world’s most extraordinary leaders, including Sir Bob Geldof, Kofi Annan, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former President of Peru Alejandro Toledo, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus and Carol Stone, managing director of opinion research agency YouGovStone.
“To give 25-year-olds the chance to think ahead to the sort of world they want to inhabit is critical to our future,” says Stone.
“One Young World will give our young people the opportunity to do just that—to join in debate and discussion with others, then to move forward with the ideas and plans that will help change lives.”
Those discussions have already started. On the One Young World website, tomorrow’s leaders are weighing in.
Here’s some of what they’re saying:
“I think it should be the power of ideas, not money, which gets voted for in elections.”
“Political leadership is a very important thing. It has the power to save many lives, build schools and bring about economic and social development. The involvement of the youth in this is imperative.”
“We are the driving force of any nation…don’t we realize how much power we have on our hands…how much we can really make these politicians do their jobs seriously rather than just doing what suits them best?”
“Only youth can change the course of upcoming history. We are at the right side of history, nothing impossible in the current prevailing situation.”
Like its members, One Young World understands the power of the social Web. The community has been growing for months on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and WAYN and has dedicated bloggers from around the world, encouraging debate and spurring action.
The summit will be open to the world through online streaming and real-time updates.
We should all be paying attention.
Brands interested in getting involved in sponsoring delegates should contact Delegate Director, Oliver Stacey, at oliver.stacey@oneyoungworld.com or on +44 (0)207 257 6069.
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