IE University students bring together 200 young talents from 65 countries at the international PANGEA meeting

• From January 28 - 30, Madrid will be the venue for “PANGEA. The 2015 Starting Point,” an international forum for young talent that enjoys the support of Telefónica Open Future, Endesa, IE University and the Rafael del Pino Foundation.
• The meeting, created by IE University students will bring together young talents from 65 countries, like 13-year-old Alyssa Carson, who will be the first person in history to step onto Mars in 2033, 14-year-old Jordan Casey, the youngest CEO in Europe, or Spaniard Tomás Belón, who survived the Tsunami in Thailand along with his family, whose story inspired the film “The Impossible.”

“PANGEA. The 2015 Starting Point” will be the largest exhibition of young talent ever held. From January 28 – 30 of 2015, Madrid will host this international meeting in which over 200 young people from 65 countries will take part, aged between 16 and 24 years old, all with a marked entrepreneurial spirit and a focus on innovation. The capital of Spain will, for a few days, be a key meeting point for a generation of youngsters who are currently known worldwide for their talent and the new ideas they propose. Participants include Alyssa Carson, who will be the first person in history to step onto Mars in 2033, or 14-year-old Jordan Casey from Ireland, who is Europe’s youngest CEO having set up three companies. The event, which is the result of an idea of a group of IE University students, enjoys the support of powerful international institutions like Telefónica Open Future, Endesa, Microsoft, the Rafael del Pino Foundation, IE University and Universia.

In order to awaken, develop and connect with the enormous pool of potential provided by young people, the event will be structured around three main pillars: The Global Village, The Pangea Master, and The Speakers.  The Global Village, that will be held at IE University’s new center in Madrid, was created to be a meeting place where young people link up to share their own experiences and forge connections that yield results at a later date in the form of ideas. The Pangea Master seeks to develop interpersonal  skills, foster creative capacities, critical thought processes and teamwork with the aim of acquiring tools that permit the young participants to meet the challenges thrown up by the world in the most powerful, effective and united way possible. Finally, the event will bring together speakers  who are among the most talented young people in the world, including Mohammed Barry,  considered the most influential young person in Africa by the Huffington Post, Luis Iván Cuende, recognized as the best European hacker under 20 years of age, and Katia Gómez, one of Latin America’s top social entrepreneurs. “All of them, and many more, will serve as an enormous source of inspiration as well as the perfect example of how being young is not a disadvantage,” say the organizers.

Pangea, the platform for young talent

The event is an initiative of Pangea, the platform created in 2013 by a student of IE University’s Bachelor in business administration, Pablo González Ruiz de la Torre, who will be presented officially in “The 2015 Starting Point.” It is the first network to foster young talent worldwide as a response to the challenge of a world that is changing at a vertiginous pace, and in which the current younger generation is playing an increasingly pivotal role.

Pangea seeks to launch initiatives in the form of events or education activities through agreements with firms, organizations and start-ups, the objective being to enable young people to have an impact at a local level. It will also focus on connecting young talent around the world, using a key tool – a mobile application used to redefine the way in which young people around the world connect up with each other. “This online platform will make it possible for people with different profiles and skills to share similar passions by creating powerful links to help jointly develop any kind of project,” explained Pangea’s founder.

Hence, Pangea aims to serve as an interface and incubator for the enormous, diverse, and still latent talent of the current younger generation. All this is made possible by a team of young people aged between 17 and 21 years old, who, although they hail from different continents, share the same vision – that of creating a new meeting point where young talent can find the tools and opportunities they need to change the world.