The second WiseDemo Campaign, the key initiative of Global Young Leaders Dialogue (GYLD), was held on July 22. Under the theme “ Global Community of Development,” this event aimed to engage youth from diverse backgrounds on global development issues and pool young people’s insight and suggestions.
At the WiseDemo Campaign 2022 Launch Event, Yu Tao, Deputy Director of China International Communication Group, and Wang Huiyao, President of the Center for China and Globalization, highlighted the significance of engaging youth on global issues. Mr. Yu emphasized that development is the everlasting pursuit of human society, and the WiseDemo Campaign will leverage the youth’s wisdom to enhance global development. Dr. Wang discussed how the exchange of ideas and increased cooperation among young people on global governance issues are important for global dialogue. In WiseDemo Campaign 2022, fifteen experts from China and abroad from universities, think tanks, international organizations, and other institutions elaborated on opportunities and challenges to enlighten youth on critical global issues.
The GYLD WiseDemo Campaign held a final round proposal presentation in the metaverse after selecting 20 proposals among 43 proposals after the primary round of assessment met online and exchanged ideas with mentors on the innovation and feasibility of their proposal. These Top 20 proposals received one-to-one guidance from mentors on how to polish their proposals to make their ideas more actionable and impactful. It was held in the metaverse software platform VSVR. All participant, leaders, mentors, and youth were given their metaverse avatar, where everybody could control their avatar and be in the virtual GYLD WiseDemo Campaign forum.
Among the Top 20 proposals, SCOLAR Network’s Model SCO was also selected under the Open cooperation and Interconnectivity topic, which was presented by Ms. Shikha Thapa Magar, Project Manager of SCOLAR Network. The proposal was presented in front of more than 100 participants virtually.
In the presentation, Ms. Shikha Thapa Magar explained Model SCO, an interactive educational game simulating the work of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization bodies. She shared the number of conferences held so far, 13 conferences with 239 delegates that spent 555 days in preparation and 70 hours in negotiation since 2018; each Model SCO takes around 45 days to prepare and includes multiple pieces of training, drafting position papers, and a final declaration. Also, she shared that the project was supported in a Joint Communique by the prime ministers of 8-member state countries for two consecutive years, 2018 and 2019. Further, she added that SCOLAR Network would continue to continue to conduct MSCO at the chair country of the SCO once a year as we have been doing in Tajikistan in 2020 and Uzbekistan in 2021, run MSCO within SCOLAR hubs-countries, and bring MSCO to corporates, where entrepreneurs and businesses can benefit from it.
Ms. Shikha Thapa shared that the experience in the metaverse was surreal as the participant felt like they were in an actual forum while sitting in their home. There were specific directives to be in VIP sections and on stage. Controlling the avatar’s movement initially was a bit tricky to master. However, slowly everybody got hold of it since every new thing is a bit of a struggle, which will be easier with time, practice, and familiarity. The metaverse will also become familiar with the evolution of digitalization.
Finally, the Top 10 excellent proposals were announced, among which Model SCO is also one of them. These Top 10 outstanding proposals will receive research grants for further improvement, and an award ceremony will be held at the Annual GYLD Forum Later this year.
Additionally, the WiseDemo Campaign 2022 adapted formats warmly welcomed by youth as WiseDemo Campaign 2022 Proposal Presentation was held in the Metaverse, an up-to-date technology. All participants, leaders, mentors, and youth used their avatars to participate in the Proposal Presentation, which was new, advanced, and futuristic.
