ICTworks

Please Submit Session Ideas Now for the hybrid Global Digital Development Forum on June 12-13, 2024.

The 2024 Global Digital Development Forum is celebrating its 5th anniversary since being re-configured due to COVID-19. Each year, the digital development community comes together in new and more thoughtful ways to surface challenges, discuss solutions, and forge partnerships that drive innovation.

GDDF 2024 is a 2-day hybrid forum, with global events online, and in-person events in DC plus 5 cities worldwide, we will continue our tradition of engaging sessions to connect government stakeholders, technologists, researchers, funders, implementers, and private sector firms from across the globe.

GDDF 2024 builds on four years of successful global virtual/hybrid forums that engage over 3,000 participants each time and feature keynote speakers from USAID, tech companies, and across the digital development ecosystem. Do not miss out on GDDF 2024!

The Global Digital Development Forum is a highly participatory, community-driven event. Please submit your ideas for different session types by March 1:

• Exciting lightning talks that showcase new ideas or focused learning on digital development successes and failures in short, fast-paced presentations
• Captivating breakout sessions featuring lively debates on key contested issues or interactive roundtable discussions that explore complex deployment challenges
• Interactive learning workshops with practical, hands-on exercises and innovative approaches
• Enlightening solution demonstrations of new services, approaches and key innovations ready for rapid deployment

Submit Your Session Ideas Now

We are actively seeking session ideas  from around the world with special consideration for sessions led by practitioners from low- and middle-income countries.

We are focusing on three key areas of digital development – exploring transformative questions,  industry-defining discussion, new voices, creative ideas for each area:

• 21st Century Development: How are we tackling humanity’s most pressing problems using digital technologies?
• Overcoming Digital Downsides: Can an ethical, human-centered approach help mitigate the risks associated with digital technology?
• Pushing the Frontiers of Digital Development: How are development organizations, the private sector, and local innovators harnessing emerging technologies for increased impact in their communities?

Please Submit Your Session Ideas by March 1. We’ll be continuously reviewing sessions and promise to respond to you by March 31. If selected, you will be asked to submit the final session title, summary and outline by April 28. All session leads will receive dedicated training in presenting online from TechChange to ensure an engaging virtual event.

GDDF 2024 Session Themes

GDDF 2024 sessions are different from the usual ICT4D conference events. Please propose engaging conversation topics with lead discussants from different organizations. The idea is to foster lively debate on key questions with multiple viewpoints, not listen to rote presentations on implemented projects.

Be sure to submit your session ideas by March 1.

We seek a wide range of ideas and viewpoints across the international development and humanitarian relief sectors – especially those coming from local communities – within these broad topic areas.

21st Century Development

• Climate Change – How can ICT help to mitigate or adapt to a warming world?
• Food Security – Where can ICT support better food nutrition and availability?
• Pandemic Response – Who is preparing for the next pandemic, and how can digital technology help?
• Siloed Solutions – When can we work together, across sectors?
• Doing More with Less – How can we succeed when budgets shrink but expectations soar?

Overcoming Digital Downsides

• Cybersecurity – How can we mitigate risks and improve digital hygiene?
• Evil Tech – When should we disengage from firms that actively do harm?
• Digital Rights – How can we support democratic institutions?
• Digital Harm – How can we ensure that we are protecting children, women, and other vulnerable groups?
• Digital Exclusion – How can we improve digital illiteracy and inclusion?
• Mis/Dis/Malinformation – Where are these risks the most acute, and how can we reduce its impacts?

Pushing the Frontiers

• Artificial Intelligence – When is it really useful for international development? (AI includes GenAI, pattern recognition, natural language processing, etc)
• Quantum Computing – How is it relevant to emerging economies?
• Internet of Things – Who is using IoT and what is its impact?
• Remote sensing – What are we seeing in the data?
• Web3 – Where can we use it to improve outcomes?

See past Technology Salon sessions for further inspiration on how to develop your session theme and recruit diverse discussants. Session ideas that focus on one solution or with discussants from one organization will not be accepted.