The jubilee, 10th Driving Change Online Sector 3.0 Festival will be remembered as the one that has brought changes at every level. Almost 50 lecturers gave their lectures. Over five hours of continuous broadcast consisted of panel discussions, seminars, and lectures that were looking for solutions and competences useful in the constantly evaluating world.
That online festival gathered hundreds of viewers from all over the world in virtual halls. It was watched by people in Poland, Europe, and even Indonesia or Columbia. Thanks to the modern technology, the seminars, discussions of the participants and meetings with the event partners were held on the Hopin platform at the same time.
What was at the Festival?
The meeting started with the debate on education, work and leadership at the time of pandemic. It was moderated by Łukasz Grass, and the participants were: Cecylia Szymańska (Microsoft), Michał Boni (SWPS University), Aleksandra Przegalińska (Koźmiński University). The debate led to the conclusion that we had learned a lot over the previous months but also our expectations regarding the use of technology had increased.
All appearances at the Festival could be watched on a closed, dedicated platform where participants could also share their opinions and have a conversation with the lecturers.
Recorded was also the lecture given by Vesselin Popov, University of Cambridge, who spoke about Big Data psychology and asked the Festival participants how much they knew about their online profiles.
After the official opening, the Festival participants attended the closed seminar sessions. They were on critical thinking, technological leadership, new models of education 2.0, sustainable development, artificial intelligence, and data security. Agata Foryciarz, a doctoral candidate at Information Technology, Stanford University explained what artificial intelligence can be used for, and what it can’t be useful for.
The special event at the Sector 3.0 Festival was the debate of Bartosz Węglarczyk, Onet.pl Program Director and Editor-in Chief with Siyabulela Mandela of University of South Africa, Journalism for Human Rights. Mandela pointed to the significant role of technology in political transformation of Africa and the social media impact on access to education. Nelson Mandela’s grandson argued that we are collectively responsible for electing leaders that are able to join communities and that we can’t elect those who get authority by dividing the society.
Panel discussions on Education 2.0 or leadership in digital transformation also resulted in many constructive conclusions that the Festival participants will probable remember for a long time. The records of lectures will be accessible on VOD Sector 3.0, which was launched on the Festival day and where now all participants interested in broadening their knowledge of digital competencies can find additional aids prepared by the lecturers especially for the Festival.
Community is the most important
Sector 3.0 Festival has been associated with people with passion for discovering new technologies and sharing their knowledge for years. This time it was the same. Although the Festival was broadcast from Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC), and all seminars and panel discussions were watched online and not live, the unique Sector atmosphere was felt by everybody. The Sector community showed its great strength in various chatrooms and social media using the #sektor2020 hashtag. Reports and information on Festival published in social media reached 2,000,000 people.
Partners are an inseparable part of the Festival
There would be no Festival without support from its partners. Cooperating with the Sector 3.0 team in every aspect of the Festival, they made efforts to make it unique and to set high standards.
The main partner of the Festival was Ringier Axel Springer Polska, the institutional partner – Innovation Campus. The Main Media Partner was Onet.pl. The honorary patronage over the Festival was held by: the Ministry of Digitalization, The Ministry of Development, the Mayor of Warsaw, All Digital, Copernicus Science Center. The technological partners were: Microsoft, Google, Orange. The partners were: Cambridge Innovation Center Warsaw, Venture Cafe Warsaw, District Hall, Trend House, the Coalition for Polish Innovation. The media patrons were: ngo.pl, Crossweb, re:view, DailyWeb.
Sector 3.0 Festival was held as part of the “Sector 3.0” Program of Polish-American Freedom Foundation, and its organizer was the Information Society Development Foundation.
What next?
Driving Change Online Sector 3.0 Festival showed again how much the society needs to talk about subjects related to digital competence that help people to adjust to changes that have become a part of everyday life. The “Sector 3.0” Program team is starting to think and design the following round of #sektor2021, to which events planned for next year will lead.
