IGCF 2022 set to host region’s first ‘Future Worlds Challenge’
The 11th edition of the International Government Communication Forum (IGCF), held on Sept.28-29, will host the Middle East’s first “Future Worlds Challenge,” creating a pioneering plaform in the region for young creatives and technology enthusiasts to dabble in artificial intelligence (AI) applications and turn their ideas into projects that will benefit communities worldwide.
Taking place as part of the pre-forum activities from Sept.26-28, 2022, the challenge will use the prestigious Massachusets Institute of Technology (MIT)’S App Inventor 2022 to deliver a series of programming sessions and workshops.
The training sessions will culminate in a project presentation challenge by the participants.
The winners of the challenge will be announced by an expert commitee of jurors on Sept.29, the final day of the forum.
The winning project will be honoured with the prestigious Sharjah Government Communication Award (SGCA) in the “Best Innovations in Government Communication” category, and thereater, will be promoted in international events.
The forum’s first-ever Future Challenges Lab
The challenge will use the prestigious Massachusets Institute of Technology’s App Inventor 2022 to deliver a series of programming sessions and workshops
will host insighful discussions like “Government Communication and Media Work Requirements” — a brainstorming session that will deliberate on the impact of modern technology on the current working environment for government communication and media, key skills that government communication professionals should gain for successful interactions with the media, and mechanisms to develop effective communication with the media using modern technologies.
Another brainstorming session, “Promising Prospects for Persons with Disabilities in Education” will discuss smart education plaforms and methodologies for upskilling people with disabilities to help them keep pace with rapid global developments, explore future visions successfully integrate them into society, in addition to highlight ways parents can be helped to engage their children with disabilities in society.
IGCF 2022, in partnership with 01Gov, will organise a talk series titled “Bold Discussions” moderated by Ibrahim Elbadawi, Founder and CEO of 01GOV. The sessions will bring together MIT App Inventor researchers, Nghi H Nguyen, Maura Kelleher and Claire Tian, along with Anni Rowland-campbell, Director, Intersticia; and Leanne Fry, Chief Innovation Officer, AUSTRAC.
The first session, titled “Humanity’s Relationship with Technology” will focus on the theory of affordances and how it might be applied to virtual worlds as compared to the physical world. Moderators will encourage participants to share ideas on how we can become smarter humans, in addition to discussing tools for future design and the theory of system thinking. The second session, titled “Artificial Intelligence and Designing the Future,” will create a quick-learning environment for finding solutions to daily problems.
Discussions will span over two days and explore how young people interact with virtual assistants like Alexa and Siri. Participants will work in teams to design the world of tomorrow, using Amazon Alexa, thus helping to formulate sotware-assisted conversations, envisioning potential future scenarios to create a world that they wish to live in.
The winners in the SGCA’S Best Innovations in Government Communication category will have an opportunity to discuss their experiences and promote their project in a session held on the “Brave discussions” plaform.
Earlier, it was reported that to be led by communications specialists and thought leaders at the two-day forum, which will carry the slogan “Challenges and Solutions,” the daily IGCF workshops will introduce latest digital innovations powering the sector, while highlighting best practices and the journeys of local and global media entities, providing an ideal skills training plaform to university students, young government communications professionals, media professionals, public servants, and all individuals who work in any capacity in the areas of formulating and delivering the government’s messages to members of the public.
Sky News Academy will organise a workshop titled “Digital Content Innovation, from/ to phones” led by Abnoub Mansour and Eman Khatab, presenters at Sky News Arabia, who will highlight to participants the best tools to create professional content using smartphones.