[Press Relase] Global HR Forum 2017 Celebrates its 12th Forum: “Future in Your Hands”
Global HR Forum 2017 Celebrates its 12th Forum: “Future in Your Hands”
Reported by Julia Park | jyp2120@hankyung.com
The rapid globalization, development of advanced technologies, and changes in global population structure has incurred queue chaos and disarray amongst industries, academia, governments and nations concerning employment, skill-development, and education. We now live in absolutely unprecedented times where there is uncertainty about jobs and skills that are relevant now but may not be in the near future due to changing demands of society. In order to prepare new challenges and foster new talents, the Global Human Resources Forum 2017 will take place from October 31st (Tue) to November 2nd (Thu), 2017 in Grand InterContinental Seoul Parnas to share insights and visions for sustainable global prosperity and human resource development.
The Global HR Forum was first established in 2006 under the slogan of “Global Talent, Global Prosperity,” organized by the Korea Economic Daily in partnership with the Ministry of Education and the Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training. Holding annual meetings since then, this year’s theme, “Future in Your Hands” will focus on how to proactively foster future talents to preemptively prepare ourselves for changes generated by the 4th Industrial Revolution. Many forecast that the real challenge will be the loss of more than 5 million jobs over the next five years in 15 leading countries. In response, academia, businesses, civil societies, governments and international organizations around the world come together to will debate, discuss and navigate through the future of human resource development in school education, business organizations, and public policy institutes across nations.
Celebrating the 12th anniversary, the Global HR Forum aims to provide an opportunity to elevate collective efforts toward overcoming the global crises through human resource development. For the past decade, the forum has created a new global platform that provides a unique learning and networking experience to share diverse perspectives and insights in addressing the major global challenges. Before much time has passed, the forum has become the leading international forum specializing in the field of Human Resources, which invited leading experts who were not only known for their outstanding career but also known for their popular appeal to the public. Over 2,500 participants attended the inaugural forum in 2006, which invited 50 speakers from 14 different countries and last year’s forum saw more than 120 speakers from 60 different countries with over 5,000 participants in attendance.
The Hon Julia Gillard AC served as the 27th Prime Minister of Australia from 2010-2013, the first woman to ever serve as Australia’s Prime Minister or Deputy Prime Minister, will deliver the first Keynote Speech on “A New Vision for Global Prosperity.” Following her retirement from public life, she joined the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) as Chair of the Board of Directors in 2014. Having served as the Minister of Education, she is now dedicated to strengthen education system in developing countries in order to increase inclusive and equitable quality education for all.
The second Keynote Speech, “Solve for Happy - An Engineering Model for Happiness,” will be addressed by Mo Gawdat, the Chief Business Officer for Google [X], Google’s infamous innovation arm whose mission is to invent and launch technologies that make a real impact in the world. A remarkable thinker and CBO of an elite team of engineers will share the underlying reasons for human suffering and plot out a step-by-step process for achieving lifelong happiness. Along with Hon Julia Gillard AC and Mo Gawdat, the forum brings together many other scholars and professionals from the world’s leading universities, multinational corporations and research institutions. The objective is to discuss various topics related to human resource development in times of the 4th Industrial Revolution.
From industry leaders, the world’s next generation of technology innovators, Rosalind (Roz) L. Hudnell, President of Intel Foundation and Vice President of Corporate Affairs of Intel Corporation; the public face of the digital sector in Europe, John Higgins, Chairman of Global Digital Foundation; Members of Korea CEO’s Association of Multinational Corporations (KCMC), Dongwook Oh, Country Manager and Internal Medicine Lead of Pfizer Korea; Hyung Chul Park, CEO of Mercer Korea; Kyung Rog Kim, Country President of Schneider Electric Korea; WonJoon Hyoung, President of SAP Korea will discuss the global corporate’s response to the 4th Industrial Revolution.
Speakers from academia include Morton Schapiro, President of Northwestern University; Thomas Wilhelmsson, Chancellor of University of Helsinki; Thomas Gries, Director of Institute for Textile Technology at RWTH Aachen University will be participating to discuss the direction of higher education in response to the challenges posed by the 4th Industrial Revolution. The leaders of world’s top research universities will share their educational philosophy as well as highlight the roles of universities in educating the next generation of leaders.
At the debate session, John Higgins, Chairman of Global Digital Foundation; Daniel Castro, Vice President of Information, Technology and Innovation Foundation; Thomas Bailey, Director of Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University will present their perspectives on the issue of technological advancement that will lead to job losses in many areas of the economy replaced by automated robots and artificial intelligence. They will specifically address the implications of the new economy brought by the 4th Industrial Revolution how they can be both promise and peril for humanity.
In this year’s special session, presentations will be conducted in a more casual and relaxed manner instead of delivering a stand-alone formal lecture. Occurring on the first day of the forum on November 1st, speakers will be presenting their speeches in a talk show format to promote an active engagement with the audience. Speakers include the designer of the soft robotic Exosuit, Conor Walsh, Director of Harvard Biodesign Lab at Harvard University; an autonomous network and self-driving car expert, Bhaskar Krishnamachari, Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Southern California; inventor of an open source self-replicating 3D printer, Adrian Bowyer, Inventor of RepRap; expert and innovator in online education platform, Piotr Mitros, Co-founder of edX; technology pioneer and the founder of a legal analytics platform that helps global organizations take control of their government risk and understand the law, Tim Hwang, CEO of FiscalNote; the world’s leading maker of unmanned aerial vehicles, Romeo Durscher, Director of Education at DJI.
Additionally, leading experts in the fields of human resource development and management will be gathering to share their views on the possible ways to cultivate future talents. Founders of successful startups in Korea, Kwang-Hyon Kim, Executive Director of D. Camp; Bong Jin Kim, CEO of Woowahan Brothers; Hyung-woo Park, Co-founder of Smart Study; Hee Seung Hwang, CEO of Jobplanet; Jeffrey Lim, Head of Campus Seoul at Google will narrate their trial and error in talent recruitment and establishment of corporate culture and organizational structure for the success of their own companies. Their vivid anecdotes and candid testimony will provide practical guidance to the audience of prospective young entrepreneurs.
The Track A sessions on education policy will cover various topics ranging from education that enhances creativity and teamwork skills, what would future schools look like, lifelong learning, and the future of education. These topics are in align with President Jae-in Moon’s education policy titled, “Creative, Convergent Talent, and Education Innovation” that best address the key agenda for Moon administration’s education policy. In relation to sessions on global companies in Track B, the top executives and HR experts from the world’s top industry leaders, Google, GE, HPE, Intel, Samsung, Schneider Electric, and Pfizer Pharmaceuticals will share their professional expertise and best practices in business models, human resource development and management, leadership skills, management strategies, and organizational structure that can cope with the shifting global business landscape.
Much emphasis will be also given to analyze the global trends of the 4th Industrial Revolution and its impact on the changes in the future of work. We have invited policy experts from UNESCO, OECD, Institute of APEC Collaborative Education (IACE), and The Brookings Institution. They will have in-depth discussions on topics such as, the 4th Industrial Revolution and change in the job world, career guidance in higher education responding to the future world of work, how to develop human resources in professional jobs, and political leaders and professional competency.
The Global HR Forum intends to look back on the modern history of Korea by reflecting on how the nation made a drastic transition from a recipient country of official development assistance to a significant donor through its economic miracle over the last few decades. In this account, the forum in partnership with the Ministry of Education and Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training (KRIVET) will be hosting the East Asia Pacific Regional Workshop (EAP Workshop). Since 2009, the EAP workshop offers opportunities to 20 or so high-ranking government officials every year in visiting technical and vocational training schools and attending the forum as part of supporting developing country through education development.
A special luncheon for young students from the Educational Research Institute for the Gifted in Invention will be hosted by the Korea Invention Promotion Association (KIPA). This event will invite the world’s leading CEOs and scholars who are also the forum speakers to provide an opportunity for young students, who dream of becoming the next generation of leaders, to meet with their role models. Furthermore, the forum will continue its tradition of the Fellowship Program, in which a selected group of applicants will be guiding the invited speakers from overseas throughout the forum by providing assistance to forum schedule information and interpretations.
The Global HR Forum will continue to carry out its objectives in cultivating and fostering talents not only contribute to individual development, but go beyond to society and national success, ultimately to global prosperity. The reason that the global competitiveness of human resources is a key issue now to everyone rather than to selected groups of elites in specialized fields is because they must compete against each other globally. Because human resources are fundamental to the prosperity of individuals, businesses, and nations around the world, now is the time for leaders from businesses, governments, and educational institutions must join efforts to improve the education, training, and utilization of human resources. The Global HR Forum will go down in history as an important international forum that continually seeks to contribute to the growth of humankind. The Forum will endeavour to rethink the sustainable global prosperity, system of international education, and of the 21st century.
For further information on the Global HR Forum, visit www.ghrforum.org