For the first time ever, the World Wilderness Congress (the world's longest running public environmental forum) will convene in Latin America.  From 6-13 November, many of the world’s leading conservation experts, politicians, academics, corporations, artists, native peoples, students and many others will gather in Merida, Mexico to debate and act upon the most urgent environmental issues of our time. WILD9 is open to the public and we anticipate it to be a diverse, inspiring, action-orientated and results driven gathering.

A primary goal of WILD9 is to utilize valuable communications tools to encourage global participation, empower young leaders and provide ongoing content and updates (before, during and following the Congress).  To meet this goal, The WILD Foundation, founder and co-host of each Congress including WILD9, has launched a significant new, online presense to build community, share resources and inspire informed action.   Read more about this goal >

A core part of this communications goal is to involve youth and young leaders in the process.  We know that effective communications is a key part to leadership in the field of conservation, and that the growing online contigent of media tools requires leaders to be more tech-savvy than ever.  We plan to hold a full day media training session for young leaders to learn about the importance of communications and the different needs & styles of available communications tools.  This training will also include hands-on experience in using these tools (social media, software, SMS phones, video cameras, etc).  

At the end of the training day, or corps of young leaders will be well-equipped to communicate their work at WILD9.  Working together, they will write live-blogs, capture video using both SMS phones and video cameras, twitter, flicr, qik.com amd more.  Our communications team will also be working on all of these fronts, to capture events and programs, interview delegates, provide live-updates to those not able to attend the Congress, and organize information for post-Congress reporting.

These young delegates will also have oppotunities to use this training, experience and tools when they return home from the Congress.  We hope to provide select youth delegates with video cameras and/or other technology so they can use their new communications skills to further their work for conservation.   We will provide them with social media tools and outlets for reporting their work following the Congress, and continue peer-learning.

In addition:

At the 8th World Wilderness Congress (2005, Anchorage, Alaska), WILD organized a small program for young leaders, including a media training.  The program for WILD9 will build off of experiences, challenges and opportunities identified with that program.

In addition, over the past 2 years, WILD has significantly invested in communications.  This new focus will allow us to better plan, implement and follow-up on the young leader's communication program for WILD9.

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