One Young World Summit: Inspiring stories and the lesson for a more sustainable World

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It's been 2 weeks since the closing ceremony of One Young World Summit (OYW), and I am still overwhelmed by all the mind-changing talks by speakers from different sectors from all around the world. Prior to OYW, I had heard a lot about sustainable development goals (SDGs), about social enterprises in the media and how we each as individuals can contribute to those goals. But attending the summit has given me the opportunity to first-hand hear the stories of the people who are fighting tirelessly to make the world a better and more sustainable place. They are professors, they are CEOs, they are politicians, they are celebrities, they are activists and most importantly, they are the young future leaders - just like me - who are capable of making massive impact on the society.

Experiencing three full, intensive days with many plenary sessions and workshops, I had the opportunity to listen to and discuss with other young leaders. Among all the impressive stories, those that most impressed me were to do with Social Business - business that solves problems. “If all the businesses in the World are devoted to solving problems, there would be no problems left.” - said professor Muhammad Yunus - 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. 

Vietnam is a developing country with many social issues that need to be tackled and fortunately, also quite a lot of social businesses setting up to deal with some of those issues. However, one of the biggest obstacles to these businesses is the lack of access to appropriate tools and knowledge, which can be used to scale up the influence of their businesses. Thus prof. Muhammad Yunus keynote left me with a big question: How can I marry my long-time interest - education - and my field of expertise - digital media - to support effective and impactful businesses? This is a hard question to answer and it would require the collaboration from different resources. 

All the OYW partners have a strong commitment to the future of a sustainable World: BP and Total invest in clean energy (goal 7), Johnson & Johnson focus on good health and well-being (goal 13), Coca Cola on responsible consumption and production (goal 12) and there are so many other organizations/companies that are also working to enhance these goals. 

And I really hope that Wavemaker - as a global media agency - can embark on this journey in any way possible. It can be either in our own field of expertise (for example: create decent work and enhance economic growth) or from the daily operation of the organization (example: to minimize the use of energy, water and single use plastic). Changes take time and cannot happen all at once. But I believe that with all the learnings and inspiration from OYW summit, we would undertake initiatives to turn Wavemaker in to a more sustainable workplace in the near future.