Our collective dream was of a co-constructed festival to celebrate the International Day of Education, one that would bring together young people, educators, field actors and institutions from all over the world. We envisioned communities gathered under the same banner, facilitating encounters, sharing solutions, and signaling a message of hope for the younger generations threatened by the current crises. Ultimately, we wanted the message to engage all organisations and individuals in the collective resolution of complex problems, such as the Sustainable Development Goals, in a way that would offer them concrete avenues for action.
Thanks to you, the dream has come true, and with incredible energy. From January 24-30, there were 250 sessions addressing a multitude of crucial issues, such as children's rights and health, education for sustainable development, learning ecosystems, new models of leadership and education financing. There were moments for discovering new initiatives, numerous workshops and rich exchanges between actors coming from the worlds of art, science, education, social entrepreneurship, etc.
The end result: 330 speakers and 2,500 participants from 90 countries interacted on the Festival platform, while thousands of others followed the sessions (5,500 on the #LP YouTube channel). Many also took part in the events held in the Hub by a variety of partner organisations, such as the UNESCO conference, Global Minnesota’s International Day of Education National Symposium, the Festival de l’Apprendre de Lyon (each of which mobilised several thousand participants), or the numerous activities orchestrated by, with, and for young people, such as the Youth x Youth sessions.
Based on this collective success and support, we are already planning the next steps:
· You will soon receive a questionnaire inviting you to share your experience of the Festival and to submit your ideas. We thank you in advance for your answers, which will enable us to prepare the 2022 edition with you and to meet your expectations even better.
· We will build on the wealth of resources gathered during the Festival to nurture editorial content at the service of the community, continuing fruitful exchange and in-depth research around burning issues.
· Beyond the Festival, we will also propose various ways for partner organisations to get involved in the #LearningPlanet initiative, be it to further promote and share your existing programs, to participate in events throughout the year, to facilitate sharing of expertise within the community, to build ambitious projects together, or to invite you to propose new areas of collaboration that you may wish to pursue. These topics will be addressed in the 2nd #LearningPlanet Newsletter in February. Stay tuned!
