Anne Githuku-Shongwe uses the power of digital games to unlock the potential of young Africans throughout the continent. A mother of three children, she argues passionately and eloquently that it is through play and simulation that we can shift their most limiting belief systems and mental models.

Barry Newstead, Chief Global Development Officer, Wikimedia Foundation

From simple alphabets to secret symbolic languages, graphic designer Saki Mafundikwa celebrates the many forms of written communication across the continent of Africa. He highlights the history and legacy that are embodied in written words and symbols, and urges African designers to draw on these graphic forms for fresh inspiration. It's summed up in his favorite Ghanaian glyph, Sankofa, which means "return and get it" -- or "learn from the past."

What can economists learn from linguists? Behavioral economist Keith Chen introduces a fascinating pattern from his research: that languages without a concept for the future -- "It rain tomorrow," instead of "It will rain tomorrow" -- correlate strongly with high savings rates.

The Future of Creativity and Culture: Futurist Gerd Leonhard's Keynote speech XMediaLab Basel 2012

Ray is the Executive Director of the University of the Middle East Project (UME), a non-profit organization with offices in Somerville. With a mother from Hiroshima, Ray is a deeply committed to promoting mutual understanding between peoples and cultures in order to contribute to a more peaceful world. To this end, UME has implemented 37 educational and cross cultural programs including a Sister Cities partnership between Somerville and Tiznit, Morocco that has impacted hundreds of people in both communities through visiting delegations, professional collaborations, student projects and artistic exchanges.

The need for of a common indigenous lingua franca in the West African Regional Countries or the ECOWAS is well over due. Lack of this essential vehicle of unity and identity did not only destabilize and destroy the socio-political and industrial strategies of the West African countries; it raised data or questions which borders on the basis for cohesion, comprehension, industrial and technological revolution and the unity in such diversity because language plays a unifying role in the beginning, development, beliefs, and customs of any group of people.

The Future of Languages - Professor Gunther Kress (Institute of Education, University of London)

What is the future of the English language?

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An exploration of philosophy's place in modern society.