Plenary Speakers 2022
Melati WIJSEN
Melati Wijsen is a 20-year-old Indonesian/Dutch full time changemaker.
At 12 years old, she founded Bye Bye Plastic Bags in 2013 with her younger sister Isabel, then 10, and has been leading the movement driven by youth since. After 6 long years on the frontline, the official ban on plastic bags, straws and Styrofoam has been enforced by the Balinese government (June 23, 2019). This is thanks to the thousands of supporters and loyal, determined partners on the island. Bali is the first Indonesian province to make the ban on plastic bags happen!
Melati graduated from Green School Bali in 2018, one year early and has been a full-time change-maker ever since.
Melati also founded the people's movement One Island One Voice in 2015 where over 500+ Bali based businesses come together to say NO to single use plastics. In 2017 Mountain Mamas was established, a social enterprise empowering women in the mountains of Bali: every woman gets paid per bag that she produces and 50% of the proceeds of the sales go back to the community for education, waste management and health insurance, the other 50% help fund BBPB.
Melati has spoken on world stages such as TED, the EU parliament in Brussels and the UN in NYC. She has also been selected as FORBES top ten most inspiring women in the country in 2017 and recently co-chaired at the World Economic Forum.
In 2019 Melati completed the filming of her first feature film length documentary, Bigger Than Us, traveling the world to visit young changemakers.
Her most recent project YOUTHTOPIA is focused on empowering more young people to accelerate change by providing them with relevant skills and tools to create impact through peer-to-peer programs.
Social Media.
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/melatiwijsen
Recent Talks & Conferences (2019-2020).
World Economic Forum, Davos – 1/2020
Paris Peace Forum - 11/2019
Deutsche Bank Wealth Management Forum – 11/2019
World Economic Forum Climate Summit, NYC (co-host) – 10/2019
National Geographic Explorers Festival, Washington DC 6/2019
Awards.
Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 2020
National Geographic Explorer 2019
Seventeen Magazine (US) I Voices of the Year 2019
Sindo.News (Indonesia) I 7 Millennial Heroes 2019
OCBC NISP (Indonesia) I Young Indonesian Heroes I #NyalakanIndonesia 2019
Bali (Indonesia) I Buta Anak Mudah anti Kanton Plastik 2019
BILD (Germany) I Role Model of the Year 2019
Tatler (Asia) I Gen.T 2019
CNN Heroes I Young Wonders 2018
Times "25 Most Influential Teenagers” 2018
BAMBI I Our Earth Award 2017
Forbes Indonesia "Top 10 Most Inspiring Women in The Country” 2017
Visit: https://youthtopia.world/
Matthew Pye
Coordinator of Philosophy, European School Brussels II
Founder of the Climate Academy
Public Speaker
Author of “Plato Tackles Climate Change”.
Matthew Pye has been a teacher for over 20 years, first in the UK, then Germany and now for 14 years in Brussels.
For over a decade, he has worked with leading scientists in sustainability, with a focus on climate change. Most notably, in collaboration with Michael Wadleigh (Oscar Winner, dir. ‘Woodstock’ (1970) and Birgit van Munster (IPPC Expert Reviewer) he established the Climate Academy in 2011. This innovative work to hothouse small groups of students in the science and social realities of climate change was recognized by the offer of Full Membership to the Club of Rome (EU Chapter) in 2016.
The Academy organized the first climate protest in the world to number more than one person - an example of the social entrepreneurial skills that are fostered. Their latest project, “The Writing’s on the Wall” aims to go viral - to bring clarity and depth to media reporting on the climate crisis. The focus of this artistic project is the concept “cut11percent”, a climate change index that has been endorsed by the world’s most eminent climate scientists.
He has given numerous lectures on Climate Change and systems thinking, at the European Commission, Cambridge University, VU (Amsterdam), St Louis University (Brussels) and most recently in Kazakhstan; alongside talks and workshops in different schools in Europe.
He co-authored the recent and widely applauded Philosophy syllabus (2019) for the European School system. His latest book, “Plato Tackles Climate Change” (2020) opens up his classroom and projects to everyone. “Read it, loved it. At every page I thought: “This is the book. This is the one that every single decision maker out there has to read”. Totally brilliant!” (Patrick Worms, President of the European Agroforestry Federation).
Konnekt Global
Konnekt Global, the youth wing of Kulture Kool Inc., is a non-profit organization founded with the aim of connecting youth worldwide to move resources required for academic success from global communities who can donate to communities who need them. We have youth-driven teams in the USA and India to handle the collection as well as distribution, and we hope to establish teams in other countries as well. We plan to build a sustainable model to ensure that resources reach communities that need them the most.
Visit: https://konnektglobal.com/