Digital Transformation for Empowered Communities
Hybrid Forum | February 3 - 4, 2025 Manila, Philippines
We’re excited to invite you to "Digital Transformation for Empowered Communities," a hybrid forum tailored for young professionals from South East Asia. Join us from February 3-4, 2025, in Manila, Philippines, for an event that will spotlight how rapidly evolving digital technologies—like AI, blockchain, and immersive digital platforms—are reshaping our world.
The event will bring together experts, policymakers, and citizens to examine the profound impact of digital transformation on economic and social development. The forum will explore key sectors where digital technologies have made significant strides, including healthcare, education, and the economy.
TOPICS
The discussions will also focus on challenges like inclusion and accessibility, emphasizing the need to bridge the persistent digital divide that disproportionately affects marginalized communities due to factors like poverty, infrastructure gaps, and limited digital literacy.
Digital governance will be another core topic, with insights on creating frameworks to manage the ethical and regulatory aspects of technologies such as AI and big data, enhancing public engagement, transparency, and efficient service delivery. Sessions will further tackle cybersecurity risks, data privacy issues, and employment disruptions that accompany rapid digital adoption, with strategies to help mitigate these risks for sustainable progress. Transformative technologies in action, from blockchain to FinTech and AI will also be addressed.
Skill Building Workshops
Practical workshops will provide hands-on skills to support digital readiness across the population and workforce, including cybersecurity fundamentals, digital literacy integration for educators, citizen engagement tools for governance, and AI-based methods to achieve a healthy information ecosystem for development. Experts will highlight skills crucial for the knowledge economy, focusing on creativity, problem-solving, and adaptability, which become even more vital as traditional roles evolve. Participants will explore career resilience strategies, learning how to handle job disruptions in a tech-driven market.
By the event’s end, participants will be equipped with tools to navigate both the economic shifts of digital transformation and the informational challenges that come with it, ensuring they can contribute responsibly and innovatively to an evolving digital ecosystem.
ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA
DCN’s hybrid events gather up to 100 in-person participants and speakers. The event will be streamed and recorded. Informal networking opportunities will be created during meals and social activities. All activities will be conducted in English.
Participants will be selected through an open application process based on stated expertise and interest in the listed topics. Special consideration will be given to those individuals who can contribute to and benefit from the discussions. The event will include representatives from as many countries in the region as possible.
- Up to 80 participants from Southeast Asia (Australia, Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, New Zealand, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam)
- Applicants can come from Civil Society, New Media, Academia, Technology Fields, Government, Digital Creators, and Influencers and have expertise/interest in issues such as Combating Disinformation, Trends in Digital Technology, Digital and Media Literacy, Active Citizenship, Cyber Security, Social Media Campaigns, E-Governance, Web 3.0. (Metaverse, AI, etc.), Journalism
- Preferred ages 18 – 35
Deadline for applications: December 14, 2024
Speakers will be selected from regional and global experts that have been recommended or identified by the DCN programming team. Individuals who register as participants may also be invited to speak at the event. You can recommend a speaker here.
Accommodation and Logistics
The forum organizers will arrange and cover economy-class flights, shared hotel accommodations for participants, single rooms for speakers, most meals, and social activities during the event. Obtaining visas to enter the Philippines is the responsibility of the participants.
The forum is organized by World Learning and Digital Communication Network Global with funding from the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.