Toronto, Feb. 06, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The renowned World Affairs Conference (WAC) is pleased to announce that Martin Luther King III will be the keynote speaker at this year’s student-led conference to be held at Upper Canada College in Toronto on Thursday, February 9. The day-long conference is co-hosted with Branksome Hall and features more than 10 speakers who will present on this year’s theme: WAC 2023: Hybrid Thinking. Participating in-person will be secondary students and teachers from 17 schools from across the Greater Toronto Area, as well as a global audience joining virtually. 

The World Affairs Conference aims to bring together youths, educators and changemakers to help shape a better world. It is North America’s largest and Canada’s oldest annual student-run current events conference, providing high-quality discussion opportunities for thousands of inspired, curious and globally-minded high school students from around the world. Its mission is to motivate high school students to proactively engage in world affairs and become aware of humanity's most pressing challenges  by exposing students to experienced perspectives and discussion opportunities with global leaders.

Mr. King will be in Toronto on February 9 and his keynote, which takes place at 2:30 p.m., will speak to the importance of continuing the struggle for civil rights and taking a stand against adversity, emphasizing the importance of individual action in making his father’s dream a reality and challenging us all to do better.

“We have an exciting lineup of speakers this year. From our headlining keynote speaker Martin Luther King III, son of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, to biotechnology experts, CEOs, New York Times published writers, comedians, Time’s Top 100 Most Influential People, and many more, students will learn about a wide range of topics to ‘redefine’ world affairs,” note Seungmyoung Lee and Amyna Ismail, WAC co-chairs and Grade 12 students at Branksome Hall. 

Jefferson Ding and Rahul Nanda, Year 12 students at Upper Canada College and two of the four co-chairs of WAC 2023, say, “We are delighted to have been a part of an event not only with a profound history but with an impressive list of past speakers, which has served to educate and inform the UCC and Branksome Hall communities and beyond. In particular, in our conference’s history, we have had the opportunity to hear from Scott Galloway, Michele Romanow, Bharat Masrani, Mehdi Hasan, Edward Snowden, Marc Garneau, Dr. Geoffrey Hinton, and Ralph Nader.”

The conference’s plenary sessions are limited to the invited schools who have chosen to attend in-person. Keynote presentations, including Martin Luther King III’s remarks, will be available to the public through the HopIn streaming platform. Registration can be completed through this link.

Media Opportunities

Interested media and press are invited to attend WAC throughout the day from 9:30 AM - 3:30 PM at Upper Canada College. Interview opportunities can be co-ordinated with speakers and other WAC participants. Press and media will have access to and can listen in on any keynote or plenary speaker. This includes MLK III’s Keynote from 2:30 PM - 3:30 PM in Laidlaw Hall. 

Interested media should contact Marnie Peters or Liisa Stephenson (contact information below) for accreditation and further details on the event.

World Affairs Conference Background and Resources

Since the 1980s, WAC has engaged more than 10,000 students from 35 countries and 80 schools. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, WAC has gone virtual for the past two years, which enabled it to reach a more global audience and gain recognition from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and City of Toronto Mayor John Tory. 

A detailed schedule and list of speakers are found on the WAC website. For more information, please visit the following:

• Website: https://worldaffairscon.org/
• LinkedIn: World Affairs Conference
• Instagram: @worldaffairscon
• Linktree: https://linktr.ee/WorldAffairsConference
• Video: Martin Luther King III's message for the World Affairs Conference

Attachment

• World Affairs Conference 2023 Press Release