TO support and empower the youth around the world, the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, invites 50 Global Shapers per year from 50 countries around the world to attend the World Economic Forum and represent their home countries. Inspirational young Saudi woman Emon Abdul Shakoor was one such member in this year’s recently-concluded WEF. She was selected by Global Shapers Hub to represent the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at Davos, Switzerland.

The 24 years old Emon Abdul Shakoor has already established herself as a technology entrepreneur, a passionate neuroscience researcher and a savvy business woman. She is the VP of XS Conferences & Exhibitions, founder of two startups, EventFen; a mobile application to connect people through events, and Blossom, an eco-system and accelerator to connect the technology entrepreneurship community in KSA.

Emon’s passion is scientific research and technology innovation, and she believes her purpose in life is to connect people in order to start a dialogue to solve real problems. She’s excited that the opportunity allowed her to network, learn, and bring back greater knowledge to enhance her community and the world.

In 2011, the World Economic Forum conducted a study to see who are the main change makers in our world today; they found that over half of the change makers to be the youth. This prompted the World Economic Forum to launch its own youth initiative called the Global Shapers Community; to empower and give a platform to youth all over the world.

The Global Shapers Community is composed of hubs in almost every major city around the world to represent and empower the leading youth in each city. In Saudi Arabia, there are 3 Global Shaper Hubs: Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dammam.

Global Shapers lead projects to make change in their world by first starting to make change in their own local community. Projects can vary from many different aspects such as, social media campaigns, events, workshops, video tutorials etc. They also vary from a variety of topics from climate change, financial literacy, education, entrepreneurship and sustainability. — Syeda Amtul