2009 Youth Conference Proposal

INTERNATIONAL YOUTH DIALOGUE 2009
STUDENTS FOR A NUCLEAR WEAPONS FREE WORLD NETWORK
WEB CONFERENCE
“Coordinating International Youth Disarmament Action for a Nuclear Weapons Convention”
By: Emily Gleason

Summary of Purpose
This conference will facilitate dialogue, collaboration, and strategy formation on the international level between youth who want to take action on nuclear disarmament, and experts who have experience in the field. Special emphasis will be on identifying steps to grow the Students for a Nuclear Weapons Free World network as a vehicle for global youth action on nuclear disarmament in coordination with other civil society groups.

The content of the conference will address the need for an International Nuclear Weapons Convention, and the importance of youth leadership and education as two key factors in achieving a nuclear weapons free world. The Conference format will reflect student leadership and give students an active voice.

Conference Outline
The international conference would take place over a two day time span, with two separate working sessions of three hours, each with a 15 minute break. The conference would be held through live video, using a Polycom VSX 700 system. There would be up to six venues, with a conference moderator located at the U.S. venue. Each venue will have the option to meet before and/or after the international web conference to discuss local actions and implications.

Day One (US Eastern Standard Time, EST) – Joint Session, All Venues
11:00 -11:15 am “Opening address and welcome”
11:15 am -12:15 pm “Where are we now, and where do we want to be?” (Speakers)
12:15- 12:45 pm “Challenges” (Speakers)
12:45-1:00 pm Coffee/snack break
1:00-2:00 pm Strategies for Change – All Venues
The format may be flexible, with Day One speakers at one or several venues, as the SNWFW may decide.

Day Two
11:00-11:30 am Welcome back, brief recap
11:30-12:00 noon Alyn Ware: “Building an International Nuclear Weapons Convention”
12:00-12:15 pm Coffee/snack break
12:15-1:30 pm Action Plan: Establish how to carry out strategies
1:30-2:30 pm Conclusions, closing
*Day Two would be followed by a local discussion session on Action Plans with possible dinner or lunch. Timing and details can be decided by each venue.

Proposed Venue Locations and Relative Opening Times
9am Mexico City
11am Philadelphia or NYC
10am Bogota, Columbia
4pm Lagos, Nigeria
4pm Heidelberg, Germany
6pm Moscow or St. Petersburg, Russia

Student Leadership
Each venue will have volunteer student leader, who takes official notes on the proceedings, and speaks on behalf of the people represented in their venue. This student leader would preferably be a SNWFW group member. The student/youth leaders will lead the discussions of “Strategies for Change” on the first day, and also lead the break out “Action Plan” session on the second day. This conference would facilitate student leadership and organization, and give youth an equal voice in the proceedings. Student speakers will offer a point of peer identification for youth participants, and increase the potential for growing the SNWFW global youth network.

Venues
Colleges or high schools, preferably one which “point” student attends. Venues must have Polycom compatibility. Each venue could have between 150-300 people, depending on space limitations.

Transportation
Countries not represented by the physical venues can fly from their location to the closest venue location, or watch via live or recorded webcast. There is also a possibility to receive email questions from those watching live via internet webcast who are unable to attend a physical venue. A chat forum on Skype could also be created in coordination with the live stream of the conference on the internet.

Funding Resources
World Federation of United Nations Associations (WFUNA)
The Project Nuclear Awareness (PNA)
Venues/Host Countries
Individual Donations
Rotary/ Lions/ Kiwanis Clubs and other private entities
Foundation grants through PNA, WFUNA

Possible Speakers
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon
WFUNA Secretary General, Pera Wells
Alyn Ware, IALANA, and Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (PNND)
Key activists and scholars
NGOs and non-profits for nuclear disarmament
Hiroshima survivors

Press/Media Coverage and Outreach
Press coverage would be maximized by the number of host countries. Six geographically spaced venues and the possibility of online web streaming of the conference proceedings will allow for thousands of people to tune in, learn and get involved.

A precedent for this was set on October 22, 2008, when Dr. Hans Blix and other experts, as well as a SNWFW speaker, spoke to over three hundred people live at three venues, but thousands more via live Web-cast.
Media blanketing will also be facilitated by PNA’s contribution of utilizing access to ReThink Media. This U.S.-based, world-wide-in-scope service will permit the International Youth Dialogue 2009 to reach everyone from Al Arabiya News, to press from Antwerp to Angola to Australia, from New York to London, Moscow, Jerusalem, and Beijing. It goes without saying that the greater the media coverage, the more successful we shall be in building this movement on a truly global basis. ReThink Media exists as a service to permit U.S. non-profit NGO’s and their allies to access otherwise prohibitively expensive NewsWire, syndicated, print, and international television media. PNA would agree to contribute its pre-paid access to ReThink Media for the purpose of conference publicity. In addition, WFUNA, Campaign for a Nuclear Weapons Free World, and other supporters have extensive media contacts who could possibly be tapped for coverage.

Challenges
1. Securing venues, speakers, and participants
2. Technology
3. Translation

To meet these challenges, a Conference Organizing Group should be established promptly. This should include 5-7 members of the SNWFW founding group—one from each venue—and a representative of each of the co-sponsoring organizations, such as WFUNA, PNA, and PNND who can each dedicate about a day per week of work on this conference.