BENJAMIN PRATT
Ahead of the G20 summit Brisbane residents will have the opportunity to hear from an array of influential world thinkers as part of a series of Brisbane Global Café events at City Hall.
The Global Café program boasts an estimated 70 high-profile speakers spanning areas of expertise such as economics, health, tourism, resources and the environment.
Held on November 12 and 13, some of the world’s best academics and thinkers will gather to debate and discuss a broad range of specialist ideas pivotal to the future of healthy international understanding and relationships.
Over the two days the key themes discussed will be Improving Human Life, Powering Future Economies, the Digital Age, Tourism’s New Frontiers and Cities of the Future.
The program includes keynotes, panel discussions and short showcase presentations. Every theme will include a parallel series of breakout room discussions for a more granular exploration of the key global issues raised.
Brisbane Marketing’s Leisure Tourism and Events Communications Advisor Shaun O’Dowd said that attendance registration numbers are high across all events.
“There have been more than 3000 session registrations across the two days with many people registering for more than one session,” Mr O’Dowd said.
“The registrations appear to be spread fairly evenly across the themes with the Digital Age receiving slightly more registrations than the others.”
QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute Director and CEO Professor Frank Gannon will be speaking to the theme Improving Human Life, focussing on the impact of oestrogen in the development of breast and endometrial cancer. Gannon said the Global Café events are different from the talks at the G20 summit.
“It’s a different stage to the G20 and the Global Café is such a great term,” he said.
“A café is a place you go to discuss things, and we’ll be discussing problems that are facing the globe.”
The international showcase of ideas and discussions will feature 74 of the world’s sharpest and most provocative minds across a range of specialist areas of global concern.
Included among the line-up of speakers is renowned biochemist, University of Oxford Professor Christopher Leaver, who promotes modern methods of plant breeding to ensure food sustainability around the world, with particular reference on improving agricultural efficiencies in third world countries.
Dr Michio Kaku is another of the minds to converge on Brisbane’s global forum. One of the most widely recognised figures in the scientific world, his ultimate goal is a “theory of everything”, in which only one equation will summarise all physical laws of the universe.
He is internationally recognised as an authority in predicting trends affecting business, commerce and finance and will deliver his scientific wisdom as part of the Powering Future Economies theme.
Alongside these leading thinkers are US Demographer Alan Berube, Chinese digital media mogul Sy Lau, Israeli digital entrepreneur Gadi Mazor, Thai retail developer Chadatip Churakul, and Hong Kong’s richest woman Pansy Ho.
The Global Café events are a must-attend event for any budding philosopher or those at the vanguard of thought-leadership.
It is being live-streamed online and broadcast in King George Square from now through to the G20 close. The live-stream can be viewed here: http://www.choosebrisbane.com/g20-brisbane/global-cafe