Forum Program & Speakers

Select a session or speaker to view the forum video clip, download the presentation and see speaker biographies.

Anthony Salcito, Vice President for Education at Microsoft, hosted this year’s Education Leaders Forum. Briefly summarizing what participants had heard and contributed the day before, he provided further insight into the Microsoft Technology Associate Degree, a program launched on July 7th, This initiative, provides students with a framework of resources, to help them build a variety of skills and identify potential career paths in IT. Salcito then introduced the topic for the third panel discussion - Green Education - encouraging participants to look at the impact and opportunity of Green IT.

Andy Hobsbawm, European Chair of Agency.com and the founder of the website Green Thing, spoke about the power of creativity and its potential if harnessed correctly. When creativity, innovation and technology come together, it becomes a powerful force for change. Creativity helps to unlock progress and take issues forward, sharpen, connect and simplify them. Hobsbawmn uses Green Thing to exemplify what he means, when he talks about the great power of creativity.

Prof. Geoffrey Scott is a renowned practioner and researcher from the University of Western Sydney, Australia. In this session Prof. Scott talked about key roles that Universities take on within the sustainability agenda, and he outlined a framework that should help forum participants to accommodate their discussions. These roles include developer of 21st Century Capabilities with its 3 forms of literacy; Change Leaders, Living Laboratories, Research and Inventors. Scott’s book, which he co-published with Michael Fullan - ‘Turnaround Leadership for Higher Education’ - highlights a key issue related to these roles: The need to shift focus from what to do to how to make it happen.

Niels Soelberg, Vice President Public Sector Europe Middle East and Africa at Microsoft, demonstrated how information and communication technology can contribute to tackle environmental challenges and problems related to climate change. Tying in to Andy Hobsbawm’s input on how to bundle creativity and innovation to achieve a mental shift in environmental considerations, Soelberg showed how dynamics between education, industry and government can help move this agenda forward.

Niels Soelberg, Vice President Public Sector Europe Middle East and Africa at Microsoft, talked about the role of ICT in Shaping Future Opportunities. He revealed the results of a recent study, which put quality and scale at the focal point of ICT use in education. From a student perspective it would mean to enable anytime, anywhere learning, that fits with the student’s lifestyle, for an educator to create an environment that enables excellent learning experiences, and from an institutional perspective, to choose providing what works best in a cost-effective way, and with minimal interruption of services.

Deon van der Merwe is the Executive Director for ICT at the University of South Africa. Being in charge for the ICT infrastructure in one of the largest open and distance learning universities in the world, van der Merwe shared his insight on some of the technical challenges he faced when providing UNISA with a unified email system. He presented his experiences with different providers and why UNISA decided to enter the cloud with Microsoft’s Live@edu solution.

Eppie Eloranta, Director of the Finnish Information Society Development Centre, gave a practical perspective on how public and private bodies worked together to ensure everyone can participate in the ‘Digital Life’ in Finland. Raising the level of digital literacy skills is the foundation of these efforts and by introducing the Computer Driving License 20 years ago, Finland set an important step. Eloranta went on to share details about the project, and how the government in collaboration with education institutions and the industry, took these efforts to a next level: Knowledge Works Examination.

Tarek Shawki, Director of the Regional Bureau for Science in the Arab States at UNESCO mapped out the organization’s focus areas of support in decreasing digital divide around the world: Infrastructure, ICT skills, and local language content. Concentrating on ICT skills, Shawki continued to outline key aspects of UNESCO’s effort to establish a recognized framework for ICT skills for teachers. The ICT Competency Framework for Teachers - supported by industry partners Cisco, Intel and Microsoft - is now recognized in 192 member states and sets the blueprint for governments to implement and deploy teacher training.

Mario Franco, Executive Director of the Magellan Project in the Portuguese Government, gave an impressive example of how a country went from being bottom to top on the access to and use of ICT scale. Not only is Portugal now number one in offering online services to citizens and companies in Europe, but also number two after Finland in providing access to technology. Franco demonstrated how governments, education systems and industry can work together in a win-win framework, to include everyone in digital lifestyle.

Raya Yunakova and Kiril Rusev are students and young entrepreneurs from Bulgaria. Participating in last year’s Imagine Cup Competition ignited their aspiration to help improve the world, and subsequently pursue their ideas as entrepreneurs. Starting with a framework on how to innovate, they shared the experiences of their journey of setting up their business and realizing their ideas in a commercial way.

Anthony Salcito, Vice President for Education at Microsoft, hosted this year’s Education Leaders Forum. Before departing to join students from around the world at the Imagine Cup, he reflected on the great insights captured during those 1.5 days. The forum started out with a broader vision of what’s possible, and continued to circle around topics such as access, skills, employability, environment and processes related to managing change and innovation. Education being a basic human right requires governments to look at access in an equitable way. It is not just access to technology, but access to information, culture, opportunities and employability. Securing employability and preparing students with skills required in knowledge based economies, involves thinking differently of the role of content and assessment, and how we build capabilities and competencies. He thanked participants and speakers, and encouraged them to continue to share experiences and insights after the forum.

Imagine Cup

Raya Yunakova and Kiril Rusev's work

Education Opens Doors

Productivity Vision Video

The Story of Gusty and Ford

Meet Green Thing

Willy Roe, Scotland Commissioner on the UK Commission for Employment and Skills, took on the role as forum facilitator. He brings with him a wide range of skills and experience in public service, business and consultancy, and has advised many government departments and public agencies in Scotland and England and financial services and technology companies, both in the UK and North America.

Willy Roe, Scotland Commissioner on the UK Commission for Employment and Skills, took on the role as forum facilitator. He brings with him a wide range of skills and experience in public service, business and consultancy, and has advised many government departments and public agencies in Scotland and England and financial services and technology companies, both in the UK and North America.