More than 2,000 delegates to attend WISE confabulations

About2,000 participants from 100 countries are expected to attend the eighthsummit of the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE), a globalinitiative of Qatar Foundation (QF), in Doha on November 14-16.Thebiennial summit, a premier international gathering on the future ofeducation, will attract some of the world’s most creative leaders in thefields of education, technology, social entrepreneurship, globaldevelopment, media, and philanthropy.The theme of the 2017 summit,‘Co-Exist, Co-Create: Learning to Live and Work Together,’ is designedto spark debate around education challenges in times of globaldisruption and economic uncertainty.  Central to these discussionswill be the role of education in a post-truth world, with sessionsfocusing on media literacy, artificial intelligence and virtual reality,social entrepreneurship, design thinking and direction for besteducation choices, among others.Among some of the 100 confirmedspeakers and moderators include: Prof Sebastien Thrun, chairman andco-founder of Udacity, innovator, edu-preneuer, and founder of Google XLabs (US);  Fareed Zakaria, writer and columnist, CNN host (US); Dr AmelKarboul, commissioner,  International Commission on Financing GlobalEducation Opportunity (Tunisia);  Wendy Kopp, CEO and co-founder, Teachfor All (US);  Michael Barber, founder and chairman of DeliveryAssociates (UK);  Noella Coursaris Musunka, founder, Malaika (DemocraticRepublic of Congo); Prof  Kishore Mahbubani, dean, Lee Kuan Yew Schoolof Public Policy of the National University (Singapore); Sarah Borgman,director and curator, Skoll World Forum (US); Vivian Onano, youth leaderand advocate, Women Deliver (Kenya) and  Samir Saran, vice president ofthe Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi (India). A highlight of the programme will be the announcement of the 2017 WISE Prize for Education Laureate. TheWISE Prize for Education is the first distinction of its kind torecognise an individual or a team of up to six people for anoutstanding, world-class contribution to education. Her HighnessSheikha Moza bint Nasser, chairperson of QF, will present the WISE Prizefor Education gold medal and $500,000 to the laureate during theopening plenary session on November 15. The 2017 WISE conferenceprovides an opportunity to meet the people behind pioneeringinternational projects championed by WISE initiatives all year round. Theseinclude the WISE Awards for proven, high-impact education solutions;the WISE Accelerator programme, which supports promising edtech projectsin education; the WISE Learners’ Voice, a mentorship programme foryoung leaders in education and the WISE Research series of reports,authored by experts with leading international institutions.Participantswill also attend hands-on workshops run by organisations includingLEGO, working jointly with Ashoka; IDEO; the Organisation of EconomicCo-operation and Development; the Brookings Institution; Meetpro, China;and the National Education Opportunities Network, UK.There willalso be an interactive lab for adults and children run by C2 (Montreal),questioning participants on their vision for the future of education.The outcomes will serve as guidance to policy-makers. Twelve to14-year-old students from Qatar’s schools will also take part in fourexperiential learning labs aimed at fostering fun and collaborativelearning, run by the Little Engineer, Lebanon; Cultural Infusion,Australia; ibTECHar, Qatar; and the Supreme Committee for Delivery &Legacy (Qatar).