The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation 2018 Goalkeepers Global Goals Awards
Co-founded in 2017 by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Project Everyone, the Goalkeepers event takes place during the annual United Nations General Assembly and brings together heads of state and international Sustainable Development Goals “Goalkeepers” (those spearheading various missions in their local communities) alike. This year’s Goalkeepers focused on the theme of power of youth.
The 2018 Goalkeepers Global Goals Awards were presented at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center on September 25, 2018. Participants included Prime Minister Erna Solberg of Norway, U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, UNICEF’s Executive Director Henrietta H. Fore, Bill & Melinda Gates and British singer songwriter, Ed Sheeran.
In partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and UNICEF, the Goalkeepers Awards program celebrated outstanding youth-focused work around the world that is directly linked to the Sustainable Development Goals (the SDGs).
This year’s Campaign Award was presented to Amika George, founder of #FreePeriods, a campaign that works to ensure no girl in the United Kingdom suffers from period poverty.
The Progress Award was presented to Dysmus Kisilu, founder of Solar Freeze, which provides renewable energy solutions to smallholder farmers in Kenya to increase agricultural productivity.
And the Changemaker Award was presented to Nadia Murad, a Yazidi woman who advocates on behalf of her community and survivors of genocide. Just days after the Awards program Nadia Murad was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize.
Loyiso Madinga, stand-up comedian and South Africa correspondent on “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah,” hosted the awards.
After the powerful program concluded guests were invited in the Atrium space to enjoy cocktails and custom food bars. Guests explored and interacted with activations including an art installation / social media backdrop consisting of over 75,000 bottle tops, collected and painted by women in Salvador, Brazil, and an interactive photo booth that encouraged guests to select their favorite goal and overlay video data, to spread the word via social media.
To learn more about the Goalkeepers event, please visit: https://www.gatesfoundation.org/goalkeepers/
Please see the full press release for additional details.
Additional information about the Sustainable Development Goals can be found here: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300
Guests received their first taste of technological innovation at registration, where they were welcomed by name on a reactive LED screen installation covering the full width of the entry wall. A large lunch café was created with a décor scheme that incorporated custom-built, ceiling-high steel LED frames draped with foliage to create smaller, intimate restaurant-style spaces that displayed both technology and nature.
A series of breakout sessions presented content targeted to attendees’ varied interests, while imagery displayed throughout the venue showcased real-life applications of how products designed to empower developers help to unleash the power of data and reimagine possibilities that will improve our world.
Every element of Microsoft Connect(); from registration, breakfast and keynote, to lunch and evening cocktails, were custom-designed to communicate exacting brand messaging and to deliver a high-touch guest experience to this important audience. The keynote and breakout sessions were livestreamed through an onsite studio built for this purpose and content was watched online by millions around the world.
Empire is proud to collaborate with Microsoft on this annual, top-tier business communication event.
To view excerpts of Connect(); 2017, please visit https://www.microsoft.com/connectevent
