One Young World Ceremony

The hotly anticipated One Young World Inaugural Summit has finally arrived. More than 500 young people aged below 25 from 192 countries have gathered in London to discuss the world's most pressing issues that has a global effect. Joining esteemed counsellors, One Young World (OYW) serves as a platform to represent young leaders in uniting in a fight against climate change, poverty, injustice, health and corruption.

To kick start the summit, delegates were welcomed by OYW founders Kate Robertson (Euro RSCG Worldwide) and David Jones (Havas Worldwide Global) after an energetic performance by the London school choir, celebrating London's diverse ethnicity and culture. In his typical humour, Mayor of London Boris Johnson tickled the crowd with his glad-filled welcome especially to delegates who are visiting London for the first time with mini trivia of the city. For the majority of Mr Johnson's speech, I was lucky to literally be standing between Nobel Peace Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus to my left and the legendary Sir Bob Geldof to my right, taking the opportunity to ask why they became OYW Counsellors. Professor Yunus is an incredible influencer to many young leaders and it was an amazing privilege to hear how much he believed in us. Similarly, while ignoring Desmond Tutu's comment on wanting to cut his hair, Sir Geldof said that young people are the driving force in uniting thoughts and ideas - his speech incited excitement in us all wanting to be leaders of change in whatever career choice. A welcoming introduction was also made by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and I feel honoured to be meeting him for the third time at another global conference. Before the real job begins over the next two days, EMI singer Corinne Bailey Rae performed two of her hits in celebration of our gathering.

OYW is a successful example of social networking services operating at its finest. A large majority of delegates were chosen through Facebook, and prior to the conference, I had already ‘met’ and engaged with fellow delegates who recognised me at the conference itself. While globalisation has shrunken border lines of states, the internet has and will continue to provide as a working tool for young people to share and develop like-minded strategies for change within our own countries. Under the guidance of today's religious, political, business and social leaders, I and 500 delegates will join as one in finding solutions to global issues.