Dubai: The seventh edition of the Knowledge Summit is scheduled to be held at Expo 2020 Dubai on March 14 and 15, under the theme ‘Knowledge: Protecting Humanity and the Planet in the Pandemics’, it was announced on Thursday.
The summit is organised by the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Knowledge Foundation (MBRF) in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme. It will also host a three-day virtual conference from March 16-18.
This edition of the Summit will host more than 50 speakers, consisting of elite experts, leaders, and government officials from all over the world, the organisers said in a press release.
The summit will entail in-depth discussions from various perspectives on the issues of food security, the impact of epidemics on the climate and the future of education. Public health and mentality during epidemics, poverty reduction, the availability and use of data, and the path towards the development of a knowledge-based economy will also be discussed at length by experts.
The summit aims to explore the opportunities and options that can be provided by knowledge for the protection of humanity.
Significant objectives
Jamal bin Huwaireb, CEO of MBRF said the seventh edition of the Knowledge Summit will be the largest international knowledge discussion platform.
“It holds significant objectives, which are aimed toward exploring opportunities and options to protect humanity in the present and the future. These discussions are especially relevant after the past two years, [when we faced] many repercussions of the pandemic,” said Huwaireb.
“Various challenges have cast an unfavourable shadow on humanity, causing adverse effects on health, politics, economy, and society. They continue to intensify day after day, especially on the lowest-income countries. This edition of the summit will provide a regional and global reference of the knowledge-based practices that must be adopted to overcome the various challenges of the current decade.”
He added: “For the first time, the summit’s agenda includes more than 50 leaders and experts as speakers, with parallel sessions being held besides the major sessions. In another first, we will also be working in the online mode, with activities being held virtually over the span of three days.”
Eminent speakers
Apart from Huwaireb, the other notable speakers include: Prof Shafi Ahmed, multi-award-winning surgeon, teacher, futurist, innovator, entrepreneur, Karam Jabr, head of Supreme Council for Media Regulation (SCMR) in Egypt, Ali Jaber, Group TV director, MBC, Ali Alhamli, the News Center Department director, Dubai Media Incorporated, Abdel Mageed Yahia, WFP Country Director in the UAE and Representative for the GCC Region, and Katherine Bruce, Sustainability and Climate Change lead for WSP’s Middle East team.
Some other eminent personalities include Maroun Kairouz. director of MENA region, World Economic Forum (WEF), Sujit Kumar Mohanty, chief of United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) Regional Office for Arab States and Bashar Kilani, managing director at Accenture Middle East.
Various challenges have cast an unfavourable shadow on humanity, causing adverse effects on health, politics, economy, and society. They continue to intensify day after day, especially on the lowest-income countries. This edition of the summit will provide a regional and global reference of the knowledge-based practices that must be adopted to overcome the various challenges of the current decade.
Important sessions
The Knowledge Summit’s first day includes six sessions and a training workshop. The second day will include seven sessions and a workshop, all to be held at the Expo 2020 Dubai main hall.
There will also be five sessions running parallel on both days, called ‘Knowledge Space.’ The number of virtual sessions, however, is expected to exceed fourteen. The main hall sessions will discuss broad concepts, such as ‘Knowledge Drives the Future’, ‘Web Education 3.0 - The Metaversity’, ‘The Role & Impact of Media During Crisis: COVID-19’ (as an example), ‘Pandemics and Their Impact on the Climate: A Double-Edged Sword’, ‘Food Security: Between Sustainable Supply Chains and Self-Sufficiency’, ‘Fighting Poverty’, ‘Mental Health and Pandemics’, ‘Young Entrepreneurship’, and ‘Social Progress Index'.
Read more
- Expo 2020 Dubai records 17.4 million visits until March 7
- UAE women cornerstone of national success, International Women’s Day Forum hears at Expo 2020 Dubai
- UAE Pavilion launches Dreamer Dialogues Series at Expo 2020 Dubai
- Have 100 stamps in your Expo passport? Get a limited-edition white passport for free
Multiple topics
The ‘Knowledge Space’ sessions will investigate various topics, such as ‘Scaling up resilience in times of uncertainty’, ‘A new model for education’, ‘Disseminating knowledge in non-traditional ways: The Researcher’s experience’, ‘Fostering collaboration and innovation mechanisms to manage risks’, ‘Promoting science and policy dialogues: Science–policy interfaces’, ‘The Future of Knowledge Foresight Report 2022’: A transformative capacity model for future-ready societies’, ‘Growing the knowledge economy in an age of intangibles’, ‘The Global Knowledge Index: Sectoral perspectives’, and ‘Data availability and access: The key to resilience’.
Virtual interactions
The summit’s virtual sessions will explore several topics with themes such as ‘Effective Leadership During Crisis: Transforming Cultures and Driving Innovation ’, ‘Reinventing Jobs and Employment’, ‘Resilient Infrastructure: A Long-Term Profitable Investment, ‘Water Security: A Cornerstone for Economic, Social and Environmental Development’, ‘SDG-Based Learning: Qualifying Young Change Makers’, ‘Knowledge Management and Big Data in Business: An Industry 4.0 Perspective, and ‘Co-Existence and Synergies in the Marine Space’.
