Thousands of thinkers, innovators, and practitioners 
joined the event in-person and online to help build the next generation of 
changemakers 

The 2021 WISE Summit has marked a seminal moment in education change. In one of 
the biggest global education events of its kind, thousands of thinkers, 
innovators, and practitioners came together to envisage how the global shock of 
the pandemic can – and must – be the catalyst for deep and lasting reform.

In what was WISE Summit’s first hybrid event, 11,110 participants registered 
online and more than 2,100 attended in-person sessions at Qatar National 
Convention Centre – located in Education City in Doha, Qatar – with delegates 
and speakers representing 177 countries. The summit brought together education 
pioneers who are delivering on the ground and who came to share concrete 
projects. 

At the end of the summit, Stavros N. Yiannouka, CEO of WISE, said: “We built 
this platform over a decade ago to amplify the work that organizations are 
doing and to create a community. And in the midst of a global pandemic, we 
managed to come together once again – in-person and online – for three days of 
conversation, inspiration, and recommitment to the cause of quality education 
for all. 
In the years and decades to come, the world is going to need movements like 
WISE to be a catalyst for collective intelligences and energies.” 

2021 WISE Summit highlights, from 200 in-person and online sessions:

 - Key sessions examined how EdTech can transform learning in the MENA region, 
where there are steep challenges in learning outcomes within a huge diversity 
of cultures. 
 - This year’s WISE AWARDS winners were honoured for the inspiring ways in 
which they had developed an effective, tried and tested solution to a global 
educational challenge. 
 - Young education changemakers from around the world held centre stage at 
WISE’s first Youth Studio to demand a radically new education system.
 - The CEO and co-founder of Teach For All, Wendy Kopp, received the WISE Prize 
for Education for her innovative global network to bring education 
opportunities to all. 
 - The Founding Director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, Marc 
Brackett, told delegates that young people are experiencing a global mental 
health crisis in the wake of the pandemic. He said: “It is our moral obligation 
that every child gets the emotional education that they really deserve.“

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/969958/Wise_Logo.jpg 

Contacts: media@wise.org.qa

SOURCE: WISE 2021