The countdown to the 2022 St. Petersburg Conference on World Affairs is on. This year’s conference begins with a keynote at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 15. Newly Elected St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch will give the keynote address.
This is the 10th year the conference is being held in St. Pete. The conference is designed to expand the discussion on the world’s toughest conversations people are having globally.
What is the Conference on World Affairs?
The major topics during the four-day conference are migration, equality, climate and corruption. It begins with a 5 p.m. discussion on corruption shaping world affairs and looks at why it does not get more attention. The Diego Figueiredo Trio will perform that evening at 8 p.m.
“Our goal this year was to not only talk about the global issues but to tie them to how we are all doing here,” said Amy Cianci, executive director of the conference, “A lot of local people are on task on climate, on resiliency, including FWC (Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission), Audubon, some really great local voices.”
Click here to register for a ticket.
Speakers and subject experts will join the conference in-person and remotely from around the world to share their views and their knowledge.
The conference is free and open to the public, but every participant must register for a ticket in advance. All seating is first-come, first-served. There are also two packages available. The Patron Package is $250 and includes VIP seating, access to additional VIP sessions, daily boxed lunch and one ticket to the Thursday night reception. The Power Couple Package is $500 and includes VIP seating, access to additional VIP sessions, two daily boxed lunches, and two tickets to the Thursday night reception.
Sessions include panel discussions, interviews, presentations, and live performances. Participants can attend in person or online. Beginning Monday, a button on the website will allow people to join virtually.
“We are an educational nonprofit, so the idea is to open the conversation by expanding on what people hear on the news,” Cianci said. “In the past, we’ve had as many as 5,000 participate. Last year, it was fully virtual, and we had 47 countries represented and over 5,000 unique log-ins.”
Key topics of discussion
St. Petersburg is a terrific location for the conference, she said, because there are so many knowledgeable people living here who have been involved in world issues. One of these people includes Board Chair Diane Selgsohn, a former international journalist who has worked all over the world.
“We also have a very large international contingent that comes here and stays for the winter,” Cianci said. “We’ve been able to bring together a lot of like-minded people.”
The Wednesday schedule includes sessions beginning at 9 a.m. on: Corruption in Expected and Unexpected Places; Crossing Borders: Politics, Culture and Identity; Drivers of Migration: Violence, Security, Lack of Economic Opportunity; and Racial Equality versus Racial Equity; and an interview with Michela Wrong, a British journalist and author who spent years covering the African continent for Reuters, the BBC and the Financial Times.
Thursday’s topic is climate and includes sessions beginning at 9 a.m. on: Neither the Rich nor the Poor Can Escape Corruption; Climate Change and Conflict; Gender Equality versus Gender Equity; Avoiding Hellscapes: What is Needed for Effective Climate Policy; and Cities Confront Climate Change.
The conference wraps up on Friday, Feb. 18, with sessions on corruption beginning at 9 a.m. on: Health Equality versus Health Equity; Climate Change in Florida: Risks and Resilience; Migration Policy: The Best Way Forward; Decentralization and the Future of Trust; and Eco-Anxiety and Eco-Hope: A New Generation Speaks Out.
Guest speakers
The conference includes 64 speakers from varying backgrounds. They include Brandon Wolf, who survived the 2016 Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando and is a national advocate for LGBTQ civil rights and gun safety reform.
- St. Petersburg’s newly elected Mayor Kenneth T. Welch, a third-generation St. Pete resident, whose focus as a commissioner was on economic development, transportation, equity, criminal justice reform and fighting poverty.
- Scott Solomon is an associate professor and director of the School of Interdisciplinary Global Studies at the University of South Florida. He is an expert on globalization, international political economy and migration.
- Barbara J. Stephenson, a former U.S. Ambassador and vice provost for global affairs and chief global officer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is a fierce advocate for the role of higher education in addressing complex global challenges. She has extensive experience in constructive collaboration across societies and geographies.