SPEAKERS
Cyril Ritchie
President of UIA
"Is the UN Summit of the Future (September 22-23, 2024) of relevance to Associations? If so, what happens next?"
Workshop Description:
In a world of (again) increasing antagonisms and conflicts among governments, the United Nations System remains essential to the struggle to maintain peace, to achieve sustainable development, to uphold human rights, to reduce the risks and consequences of disasters, to preserve multilateralism. But what United Nations? The UN Summit of the Future (SOTF) is intended to revamp, reinvigorate, redress the UN as the universal values-based, standard-setting organization its Charter intends it to be. SOTF will produce a Pact for the Future, a Global Digital Compact, a Declaration on Future Generations. What is and will be the role of and impact on Associations, short-term and long-term? The Florence RT Keynote address will endeavour to pinpoint the Summit's relevance to Association principles, aspirations, and daily work, looking forward to 2025 and the Sustainable Development Goals target date of 2030.
Realism? Pie in the sky? Come, listen, react!
Biography
Union of International Associations: President since 2017 - Bruxelles
Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CoNGO): President 2011-2018; First Vice President 2018-2025 - Geneva, New York, Vienna
Council of Europe Expert Council on NGO Law: President 2008- 2018; Honorary President from 2018 - Strasbourg
World Future Council: Senior Policy Advisor since 2012 - Hamburg
International Baby Food Action Network/GIFA: Vice President since 2020 - Geneva
Titular of the World Order of the Smile (since 1979) – Government of Poland
International Civil Society Forum for Democracy (ICSFD, 2006): President - Doha
World Civil Society Conference (WOCSOC, 1999): President - Montreal
International Council of Voluntary Agencies: Executive Director 1964-1978 and 1990-1991 - Geneva
Speaker t.b.c.
International Society for Low Vision Research and Rehabilitation (ISLRR)
“Low Vision Congress” – An example of 360° teamwork to listen, learn and leave a legacy for the future.”
Workshop Description:
An introduction and discussion of how an association and a local team (PCO, CVB and Venue) can work together seamlessly from an initial RFP to bid presentation already planning out for now and the future.
Key take-aways/Objectives:
Listening to the needs of the association, co-creative thinking and brainstorming to present a well-rounded project with the aim of not just looking at the congress in Florence 2025, but leaving added value for the years to come.
Diye Ndiaye
Counselor for International Relations, Equal Opportunities and Local Associations Promotion of the Commune of Scandicci (Province of Florence) / President of the Senegalese Community Association in Florence & President of FASI (Federation of Senegalese Associations in Italy): “UN SDGs and EU Agenda 2030 – Associations Thriving for Equal Opportunities".
Workshop Description:
Equal opportunities is a vast subject that is not only limited to gender equality, but it’s also touching every aspects of the community. Associations can play a central role in promoting and defending this subject by making it visible to policy makers.
How can associations advocate “equal opportunities” towards national and international organisations and help achieving the goals of the UN SDGs and of the Agenda 2030 of the European Union?
Associations’ unique knowledge about their professional environment makes them the perfect magnifying glass for policy makers to thrive equal opportunities.
Key take-aways/Objectives:
Defining equal opportunities beyond gender equality. How associations can enhance equal opportunities in their own specific fields. How to get the attention of policy makers on the subject. How to contribute to the development of the subject on a global scale even with a small contribution.
Biography
Diye Ndiaye (Valel, Senegal, 1970) – Counselor for International Relations, Equal Opportunities and Local Associations Promotion of the Commune of Scandicci (Province of Florence). She is also in charge of Professional Training, Labour Policies, Cooperation Projects and Citizenship Rights.
She holds a University degree in Etno-antropological Sciences at the University of Florence and a Diplome d’Etude Approfondi from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris where she is finalising a research doctorate on Social Anthropology and Etnology.
Diye is President of the Senegalese Community Association in Florence and also the President of FASI (Federation of Senegalese Associations in Italy).
Speaker t.b.c.
"Italian Knowledge Leaders: fostering intellectual engagement through collaboration with international associations.”
Workshop Description:
Italian Knowledge Leaders is a national umbrella-like project aimed to support local intellectual leaders and their engagement within international associations. Through a variety of approaches, this initiative seeks to elevate Italy's standing as a hub of knowledge exchange and networking within various professional and academic circles. By providing support to international associations and facilitating the organization of congresses, the project aims to improve the quality and number of congresses in Italy and thus foster collaboration, innovation, and growth in all fields of knowledge.
Key take-aways/Objectives:
To highlight how to foster collaboration of international associations and host destinations through the engagement of local intellectual leaders who are actively involved in association life.
How associations can maximize the impact, relevance, and sustainability of their events, by harnessing the expertise, insights, and networks of local intellectual leaders, and thus developing successful partnerships with host destinations.
Stefano Berretti
Associate Professor at the Department of Information Engineering of University of Firenze
"Storytelling of AI – The good, the bad and the ugly"
Workshop Description:
A storytelling on the history of AI. How did it start? How it developed? Where are we now? Where are we going? Risks and opportunities. Analysing the inevitable impact that AI will have on International Associations and the future of humanity.
Key take-aways/Objectives:
Getting an idea of where AI is coming from and how it is already playing an important role in society. Learning the opportunities and the risks related to AI as well as the do’s and don’ts of this new subject.
Biography
Stefano Berretti received the laurea degree in Electronics Engineering and the Ph.D. in Computer Engineering and Telecommunications from the University of Firenze, in 1997 and 2001, respectively.
Currently, he is an Associate Professor at the Department of Information Engineering of University of Firenze, where he teaches “Fundamentals of Computer Programming” and “Computer Graphics and 3D”, respectively, at the first and second level of the graduate program in Computer Engineering.
Stefano Berretti has been visiting researcher at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), in Mumbai, India (Spring 2000), and visiting professor at Institut TELECOM, TELECOM Lille 1, in Lille, France (October-November 2009), and at Khalifa University of Science, Technology and Research (KUSTAR), Sharjah campus, United Arab Emirates (June 2013).
His research interests focus on content analysis, modeling, and retrieval in image and 3D object databases. Recent researches have addressed 3D object retrieval and partitioning, 3D/4D face and facial expression recognition, 3D super-resolution, 4D action recognition.
Stefano Berretti is author of more than 100 publications appeared in books, international journals and conference proceedings in the area of pattern recognition, computer vision and multimedia.
He serves as program committee member of several international conferences and is a frequent reviewer of many international journals. He has been also co-chair of the Fifth Workshop on Non-Rigid Shape Analysis and Deformable Image Alignment (NORDIA’12), held in conjunction with ECCV 2012.
Ryan Brubaker
"Achieving goals, finding partners: UIA’s Global Civil Society Database."
Workshop Description:
UIA provides tools and data to help associations with their outreach, event planning and more. Ryan will present a number of UIA's tools, including a live demo of 'Open Yearbook' and 'Open Calendar', explain the history and future plans of the Global Civil Society Database, and will answer questions about how associations can best take advantage of these free resources.
Biography
Ryan has worked as a web and database developer at UIA since 2011. He is responsible for the user interface of UIA's databases, the ongoing development of its website and the visual identity of the organization. He also provides regular training sessions on the use of UIA's Yearbook of International Organizations and International Congress Calendar digital publications.
Before joining UIA, Ryan ran a communications design studio crafting online identities for associations and small businesses.