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Brisbane Global Cafe

In the lead up to the G20 World Leaders Summit in Brisbane, the host city has released the official program for the Brisbane Global Cafe. 

Designed to highlight the global nature of G20, the Brisbane Global Cafe will provide presentations and panels addressing five key themes about the future of life on Earth and will run 12-13 November. The themes include Improving Human Life, Tourism's New Frontiers, The Digital Age, Cities of the Future and Powering Future Economics.

"The Brisbane Global Cafe will be a first for a G20 host city and we hope it leaves a legacy for future host cities to adopt," said Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk.  

The program will feature seventy-five global technology pioneers, scientists, entrepreneurs, researches, inventors and new-world thinkers, who will discuss the deeper issues humanity is facing, promoting in-depth thinking about humanity's future on the planet. The program intends to generate conversation about these issues before G20 gets underway. 

Mr Quick said the timing for the Brisbane Global Cafe was perfect, giving the spotlight G20 will provide. 

"[It] is another way of putting Brisbane on the world map as part of our ongoing bid to attract investment, students, skills and talent, business meetings and tourists," he said. 

Likewise, the local business, government and academic communities will gain access to progressive thinking from around the world as the event will be live-streamed online and broadcast in Brisbane's King George Square. Local and global media outlets will also provide access to the program. 

The Brisbane Global Cafe Chairs are:

• Brisbane cervical cancer vaccine pioneer Professor Ian Frazer
• national tourism identity Christopher Brown AM
• UK-based advisor for cities and business, Greg Clark
• CSIRO executive Dr Alex Wonhas
• international entrepreneurial leadership and business growth expert Dr Jana Matthews. 

Each program has it's own specific focus around the larger issue of humanity's future on Earth. Improving Human Life questions the ensuring improvements in the quality and length of life which will need to be made as life expectancy continues to increase and the population ages. 

Connected to this is Cities of the Future, which will focus on how cities will cope with the challenge of unprecedented population growth. 

Tourism's New Frontiers examines the implications of the expected doubling in Australia's Tourism over the next 20 years, as Asia's expanding middle classes are expected to fuel the growth. 

Digital innovation is changing lives and touching all parts of human existence. The Digital Age program will investigate how this will affect Entrepreneurship & Innovation. 

Powering Future Economies is interested in energy and how dramatic economic transformations have created diverse and new developments, producing new opportunities. 

To download full program overviews, click here.