Youthful leaders to converge for summit here during fall

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey will join former President Bill Clinton at a global youth leadership summit in Pittsburgh this fall.

The third annual One Young World Summit, to be held Oct. 18-22, invites 1,500 delegates — all under the age of 30 — from more than 190 countries to discuss everything from global business to sustainable development.

Mr. Dorsey will speak as a summit counsellor alongside digital giants Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post; Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia; and Pete Cashmore, founder of Mashable, a social media news site. Mr. Clinton will speak at the conference’s opening ceremony.

Kassie Leuschel, a 2012 delegate, is excited for Mr. Dorsey’s address and the opportunity to meet international delegates and ambassadors.

“I’m really looking forward to hearing other people’s perspectives on global issues and seeing how I can bring that back to my role here,” said Ms. Leuschel, 25, financial analyst at Bayer Corp. in Pittsburgh.

The delegates will attend general sessions on various topics and personalized “breakout sessions” around the city. Aside from discussions on global issues, 2011 delegate Brandon Blache-Cohen views the summit as a chance to meet new people.

“You can be having breakfast with someone from Azerbaijan on your left and Zimbabwe on your right. It’s a really unique opportunity to forge connections,” said Mr. Blache-Cohen, 29, executive director of Amizade Global Service Learning in Pittsburgh.

Mr. Blache-Cohen will host a dozen delegates at his home for dinner and present a breakout session on social media as a catalyst for change. His interest in social media piqued while attending last year’s summit in Zurich, Switzerland, which largely focused on the Arab spring, the series of political uprisings in the Middle East beginning in 2010.

“A lot of the talk was about how social media has been used for social change,” he said. “This is something that young people are uniquely connected to.”