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18 March 2024
Entitled Re-imagining our Future, nearly 400 year 12 students from across the City Family of Schools attended, including CLSG, two other independent schools and five state schools from the City and surrounding boroughs.
The thrilling programme of events was designed in conjunction with the new start-up university, the London Interdisciplinary School (LIS) and allowed students to work with their peers and industry-leading experts to grapple with, and address, the key challenges facing the City as it moves into the future. Students were asked to think about London in 2050 and create an advertisement for the future city using AI tools. Given themes such as ‘live’, ‘work’, ‘play’ and ‘move’, students came up with fascinating innovations including a state-of-the-art performance space inspired by the Gherkin and high walkways to safely navigate the city, inspired by the Pedways of the 1960s. Special guest Claudia Winkleman provided a witty and heart-warming commentary on proceedings, judging their innovations and selecting the winners.
Other highlights of the day included:
· a keynote address by celebrated TEDx speaker Jaz Ampaw Farr
· a slam poetry performance by Emmeline
· a talk from Henry Ajder, generative AI and synthetic media expert, on the GenAI revolution
· presentations by Ceci Mourkogiannis, the head of product design at Snapchat, Amelia Peterson and Lara Kinneir from LIS, and Asif Khan, the architect behind the regeneration of Smithfield and the new Museum of London
· a panel discussion with guest speakers, Rachel Sylvester and Susie Goldsborough of The Times, and Ludovic Georges of Uber and Annie Auerbach, author of Flex
In speaking about the event, Head of City of London School for Girls Jenny Brown said, ‘Reimagining our Future isn’t just about envisioning possibilities, it’s about seizing them. The day was full of inspiring, thought-provoking discussions and activities which were designed to be the catalyst for collective imagination and actionable strategies for students to boldly create the world they imagine for the future.’
Amelia Peterson and Lara Kinneir, Associate Professors at LIS said, ’In a world where the challenges are becoming more and more complex, we need bright young minds to collaborate and conceive of new and innovative ways to create a better future. That’s exactly what we do at LIS – bridging across disciplinary boundaries to create new routes to address societal needs. Our activity was designed to encourage the students in this endeavour, to show them that their city relies on it and their voice in determining its future is paramount.
There was an extraordinary buzz in the room, and students could not have been more positive, commenting on the inspirational nature of the talks, how much they had enjoyed forging new relationships, the chance to work together with young professionals from Uber and Schroders and to interact with leaders in their field. Comments included, ‘it made me feel so excited about the future’; ‘I now believe in myself’ and ‘It’s so cool being in this historic building thinking about the future’.
