The Nelson Mandela Youth Leadership Summit goes online! More than 150 people of all ages participated in a very interactive and inspirational summit.

Another silver lining of the pandemic!

In a breakout room with 7, I was meeting with youth from not only Shepparton but would you believe Colorado in the US!

This session was packed with inspiration for all ages! A huge thank you to Victor Perton, from the Centre of Optimism, Marg Hepworth from the Gandhi Experiment, Rashid Sumaili from Future Voices and a stellar panel of speakers.

I’d like to share some takeaways …

How about seeing the “New Normal” as a “Better Normal”

“Respect for all, for others for self for our planet”

The welcome to country was spoken in the native tongue. Very fitting and delivered by a young local!

The hosts should be congratulated on providing a speaker panel that represented, Industry, Government and Education.

Some of these speakers provided recordings that can still be viewed by clicking on the link below.

https://www.centreforoptimism.com/The-third-Nelson-Mandela-Regional-Youth-Summit

Thank you Ken Murray for sharing your journey as an educator of 40 years and reminding us every problem has a solution. Thank you for the encouragement to combine optimism with resilience.

Thank you Aaron Mashano for joining us from Bali!

Loved this quote from you…”together we can complete each other, we don’t need to compete”

Thank you to High Commissioner Marthinus Van Schalkwyk for sharing your story and encouragement. Thank you for reminding us to “have an unshakable belief in human ingenuity”.

Thank you Victor for reminding us why Optimism is good for us! and for reminding us what it is:

Optimism is an expectation that good things will happen and that things will work out in the end.”

A key to a good strategy is underpin by optimism!

Thank you Michael Kleine for sharing why you are optimistic?

Love that you were so encouraging of how young people can feel empowered to make a difference.

Very inspiring!

Michael’s top 5 in reverse order as he delivered them 

5.         Digital Natives are going to help navigate a way out to the other side

of this pandemic.

4.         Young people are bridge builders – that it takes a village raise a child

3.         Generosity of Spirit

2.         Serve as fake news filters

1.         Young people will be the engine room

Thank you Andrew Cumpston for encouraging us to find common ground that will encourage collaboration.

Thank you Dr Amanda Caples for having us think about reverse engineering. I also really loved the focus on sustainability.

Those in manufacturing are more focused on the inputs required to produce a product.

Thank you Karyn Sobels for sharing you insights that come from being President of the Vicotrian Chamber of Commerce and Industry .

I loved your example of life being non-linear that related to sometimes choosing to go backwards to go forwards with regard to your career. Very relatable!

Another interesting insight is that once upon a time we had 7.3 people to support every retired adult. This will soon be 2.7. This implies we cannot afford to have people out of work.

Finally, Marg Hepworth, you did a superb job as MC and encouraging young people to contribute.

So good this was a zoom call that really made for a most interactive summit that engaged participants for just on 2 hours!

Well done everybody!