Cultural Diplomacy & Technology Conference - Ottawa

My ultimate career dream is to travel around the world, locally and internationally, exploring arts and culture then publishing it. I was telling this to my former Arts Management programs officer and she mentioned this field is cultural diplomacy which I should look into.

When she put a name to it I remembered scrolling past a cultural diplomacy conference on Instagram. I went hunting for it and read through with understanding, it was exactly what I dream of! This is why you need mentors in your life.

I signed up immediately, but only online slots were left. Training as a journalist first before arts management taught me to always ask for an opportunity. So I emailed the organizers requesting to be placed on a waitlist should there be an opening in-person as I was only a city away. Lo and behold! I got a reply inviting me to attend in person and I’m glad I did because the experience open my eyes so much.

For context, cultural diplomacy is using arts and culture for integration, relationship-building, cohesion among various nations. Think of how you do events for diverse communities but now with international audiences.

The speakers for this conference were Ingrid Berlanga Vasile - Embassy of Mexico, Dr. Meltem Yıldırım - YES Foundation, Ritika Saraswat - consultant, Deloitte.

Ingrid set the foundations of cultural diplomacy with an overview of various initiatives by Mexico that would relate to Canada and other nations. She highlighted the amplification, preservation and promotion of indigenous cultures which most of our countries need to do a better job at. She gave me that gift of being greeted in Swahili, Kenya’s national language, when I went to say hi. It was not just diplomacy, she lived and worked in Kenya for three years and like everyone who has, wants to go back.

Dr. Meltem is like a walking encyclopedia on how to work with youth in a way that makes them productive, efficient and value-driven. She grounded her talk by mentioning she is parenting children from three different generations which makes you easily adapt to working with youth. The aim of her work is not to take away texhnology from youth, it’s to turn it into useful equipment and spaces for their growth. She talked of social media being a global collaboration opportunity on our fingertips, but how many times do we make use of it?

This is not just talk or optimism. In 2020 I was producing Sekoya Magazine, a crafts and culture publication which featured East Afrikan, UAE and Canadian artists. They were all recruited via Instagram or WhatsApp. We truly underestimate the global space technology has opened us to. In terms of culture, her talk reminded me of iShowSpeed, the USA YouTuber who made headlines with his Afrikan tour exploring culture from different countries. TikTok, Instagram were buzzing with youth confessing how much they had believed derogative media views of the continent. Think of Afrikans born out of the continent who never thought of travelling there and because of one content creator their whole perspective changed.

She also affirmed my own personal work with youth. It can be challenging as they are less experienced but if we don’t invest in them now, who will inherit the spaces we are working hard to build?

Ritika Saraswat’s talk on digital inclusion and the future of work especially by supporting marginalized youth got a lot of mhmmmms and nods from me. As an immigrant, sometimes all you need is to see another immigrant occupying space to believe you too can. It’s not because you don’t know or you are not confident. It is the interwoven realities you have to navigate which leaves little room to pursue your dreams. It was not just motivational talk but realistic perspective shifts. She mentioned value-driven employers like to work with newcomers because starting life in another country makes you adaptable, resilient, agile and a pro-problem solver. Which is true! I had never used this perspective when talking about how my personal experience would be valuable to a workplace but now I will. She also mentioned with AI being instructed at this stage by humans, value-driven employers are seeking immigrants because you feed the company’s AI use with diverse perspectives. Wait. Hold on. You mean to tell me that my differences are actually an asset? The bargaining bracket has just doubled on my end. Think about it, workplaces with people from various countries give clients a wider experience. By just existing you are enabling people to experience a different culture or way of doing life. Something that many pay for in form of vacations and trips. I really needed to hear this. She also emphasized the need to see AI as a helper and enabler instead of competitor. As an artist, I have my reservations about AI. But her perspective on how it helps automate tasks made the project manager in me buy in. I usually use the scheduling email feature a lot, why not explore other automated features that AI has?

I needed to be in that room. The rest of the day was spent interacting with attendees from various countries and fields in cultural diplomacy. Later I had time to sight see Ottawa, look out for that post.