Novus Summit
The Novus Summit is an annual speaker summit held at the United Nations General Assembly Hall in New York City. First held on July 17th 2016, the Novus summit is staged in partnership with the United Nations Department Of Economic and Social Affairs in order to show support for the 17 UN Global Goals, also known as the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
History
On September 25th 2015, the United Nations adopted its “2030 mandate” for sustainability. The mandate called for countries in the UN to adopt a set of goals in order to “end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all as part of a new sustainable development agenda.” The Novus Summit was originally curated by social-impact strategist Kunal Sood and Sony Mordechai in partnership with the UN DESA in order to support the 17 UN global goals and feature 17 voices of “positive change.” The executive producer was Los Angeles based humanitarian Ryan Long who served a vital role in the event’s creation. According to a press release, 17 innovators are honored each year for each of the UN’s original 17 goals, the mission of the summit being to, “serve as an intergenerational platform to inspire humanity to unite in action for positive impact, and stimulate action around the 2030 Agenda by sharing stories of hope, transformation, and resilience in a highly immersive environment.”
2016 Summit
The inaugural summit took place on July 17, 2016 and featured many political and altruistic cynosures. Among those featured in the summit were Iranian-American engineer Anousheh Ansari, University of Pennsylvania psychologist Martin Seligman, astronaut Scott Parazynski, Antarctic scientist and activist Robert Swan, Oxford research scientist and primatologist Isabel Behncke Izquierdo, activist Lakshmi Puri, one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People Roya Mahboob, Entrepreneur Peter Diamandis, CNN executive Parisa Khosravi, Television director Vikram Gandhi, Maye Musk the mother of Tesla motors founder Elon Musk and the founder of the World Toilet Organization, Jack Sim. There was also a performance by Indian entertainer and Grammy Award winner Ricky Kej.