Future Congress returns with Nobel prizes, director of the WHO and events in almost the entire country

It changed the way of living, of communicating, of facing problems. Science had to act quickly to deal with the pandemic, which now determines our daily lives. The planet is undergoing rapid changes and humanity’s call is to be alert and act with evidence-based decisions in these situations. For this reason, the new edition of Future Congress (CF) will put on the table the necessary discussions to coexist in this new habitat.

The next version of the largest disclosure event in Latin America already has a date. Between January 17 and 21, the lights of CF will be turned on, under the slogan “Learn to Coexist”.

They will be present there four Nobel Prize winners and about 80 of the personalities important sciences, the humanities and the arts.

The eleventh edition, organized by the Senate of Chile -through the Future Challenges Commission- and the Encounters of the Future Foundation (FEF), will present a range of exhibitors who will make available the best of their experience to expand the frontiers of citizen knowledge and discuss the changes that the planet and its societies will have.

The President of the Future Challenges Commission of the Senate, Guido Girardi, stated that in the eleventh version of the Future Congress “we will talk about Learning to Coexist, how to face challenges, how we have to change our way of relating to nature and to the rest of living beings, how to change our development models to coexist differently, even with artificial intelligence. All these great intellectual challenges can be seen in congressfuturo.cl”.

Regarding the event, the innovations that are contemplated for this year are varied, both in its content, as an editorial line, alliances, and also in its execution.

The executive director of FEF, Nicolas Fernandez, explained that “just like last year, Future Congress will bet on a comprehensive platform that adapts to the sanitary possibilities of today”.

The activity includes almost a thousand square meters of a 360 degree stage, and one hundred and ninety square meters of high-definition LED screens, which will allow a connection and interaction between exhibitors and the public that will be connected to the event.

Exhibitors of Future Congress 2022

The more than 80 exhibitors who will present at Future Congress come from more than 20 countries and will represent various disciplines and perspectives of the knowledge, science, humanities, art and innovation.

Following the logic of this version, the guests will represent the great changes that the world has undergone, and how we must re-think the future to Learn to Coexist.

Great personalities will parade through the main stage of the Future Congress, such as the winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics, Esther Duflo, who was recognized for her studies on inequality within developing countries, and who currently serves as director of the Department of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Leading researchers will also be present whose mission will be to problematize the next challenges of Artificial Intelligence.

Among them stands out the technology specialist, Nicolás Mialhe, co-founder of “The Future Society”, and member of several international institutions dedicated to the ethical development of Artificial Intelligence, as well as social welfare based on the application of this technology.

Next to him, he will also be Timnit Gebru, computer scientist and a research leader on ethics and algorithmic bias in AI. One of its strengths is to highlight the presence of racism and sexism on digital platforms.

On the other hand, to talk about the pandemic and how to detect infectious foci, the participation of the outstanding Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and White House Health Advisor; Tedros Adhanom, director general of the World Health Organization, and Gonzalo Moratorio, Uruguayan virologist who created one of the first tests to detect the presence of COVID-19 in the body. His work was recognized as one of the “10 of Nature”, carried out by the prestigious scientific journal.

Ko Barrett, climate policy expert and vice-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), next to Marine biologist and one of the world’s leading specialists in marine resource studies, Daniel Pauly, will share their vision on the new discoveries regarding the climate crisis, as well as the complex scenario facing marine biodiversity

In other subjects, academics such as Teresa Paneque, astronomer and scientific communicator; Patricia Muñoz, Ombudsman for Children, and the first president of the Constitutional Convention, Elisa Loncon.

The head of programming for Future Congress, Carlos Vásquez, pointed out that “this year’s program is aimed at rethinking the ways in which we live together, not only among human beings, but also among species and with the environment. We want to give a much bigger focus to the idea of ​​reality that we are building together.”

Additionally, for the first time virtual rooms will be implemented where attendees and exhibitors will have the opportunity to discuss and delve into specific issues, which often have no place during the talks. Thus, those attending the Future Congress will have a private space to interact with them and discuss doubts they may have about the recently presented topic.

Milestones and news for this edition

Faced with a new scenario, the organizers of Future Congress closed a series of milestones and alliances to extend their logic in public and private projects.

“That is why we seek to address issues that allow us to rethink and project ourselves on how to act and co-create a future in a context of vertiginous changes,” explained Daniel Fernández, president of the Fundación Encuentros del Futuro board of directors.

Regarding health care, Future Congress will innovate this year to maintain control and possible outbreak in its collaborators and exhibitors of the event.

Via “ScanVox”, a project developed by Merlin Research, technological partner of the activity, telephone calls will be coordinated where a virtual assistant will analyze the tone of voice with artificial intelligence, among other parameters, to detect the probability that the person may be facing a COVID-19 infection.

The system has an accuracy of between 80% and 90% and will be applied to the assistants and collaborators of this new version of CF.

For the first time, the programmatic development of Future Congress was carried out under the gender consultancy, carried out by Fundación Hay Mujeres.

Thanks to this, the event will have topics, panels and guidelines reviewed and approved by said institution, which guarantees that Future Congress is developed under standards that ensure a space of equality, and help make visible the challenges that still exist in the world of science, humanities and knowledge in general.

In addition, during this first year, the Hay Mujeres Foundation advised the editorial line of the series that will premiere during this version of Future Congress: “Frontera”. This program presents themes that invite reflection on the challenges that the society of the future will have to face.

On the other hand, it will also be presented during this new version of CF “Symbiosis”. This initiative is an incursion where science, technology and knowledge speak through art, and in this case through the poetry of Elicura Chihuailaf. Everything will be transmitted through the official Future Congress platforms, without prior registration.

In general, the importance of Future Congress, and its contribution to the local and global community, has made it possible to generate alliances to expand its work and participate in projects promoted by public and private institutions.

Here, the collaboration agreement with the Chilean Agency for International Cooperation for Development (AGCID) of the Ministry of Foreign Relations stands out; in addition to projects with the Chilean Chamber of Construction (CChC) and the Illustrious Municipality of Renca.

Future Congress in almost the entire country

As usual, Future Congress will carry out parallel activities in different regions to decentralize science and knowledge: Antofagasta, Coquimbo, Valparaíso, Metropolitana, O’Higgins, Maule, Bío Bío, La Araucanía, Los Ríos, Aysén and Magallanes.

Carolina Goic, senator member of the Challenges of the Future Commission and representative of the Magallanes region, pointed out that “the regions are not oblivious to this festival of science. We left on January 17 from Magallanes, in Punta Arenas, with two great exponents: Oscar Bottasso and Sharon Robinson. Future Congress wants to look at the world, the global challenges from the regions, to learn to live together”.

For him Senator Francisco Chahuán, member of the Challenges of the Future Commission and representative of the Valparaíso region, Francisco Chahuán, “decentralizing access to innovation, science, technology and knowledge is fundamental and that has been the role of the Future Congress for these 11 years of continuous work.”

The Senator Alfonso De Urresti, member of the Challenges of the Future commission and representative of the Los Ríos region, expressed his joy at the Future Congress 2022 in the area, scheduled for January 21.

“We will have two important international speakers who will talk about the environment, resilience and the need to protect our oceans and ecosystems. This is important because it opens a national and international debate, bringing the best of science and research to our territory, in conversation with academics, students and the general public”, he said.

In addition, Juan Antonio Coloma, part of the Challenges of the Future Commission and senator for the Maule region, stated that all times have different challenges.

“This world touched us, perhaps one of the most exciting, most difficult things, but more important is learning to live together, to be part of the same planet, to solve problems together that come to us and that we have not always faced. I think it is very important that this Future Congress be held in regions, since it helps a lot to better understand that unity of the country that we so much need”, said the parliamentarian.