Global Youth
Tech Assembly
A global youth assembly on emerging tech: listening, acting, and being heard. Starting with AI.
The technologies reshaping how young people work, learn and live are being decided without them. This turns the world's largest youth network into one standing voice on emerging tech, and a hand in what gets built.
30 seconds · one rep per hub · no commitment in the room
8 regions · 1 seat lit · yours is open
1 of 450+ city hubs seated · the founding cohort is forming
The problem
The decisions about our future are being made without us.
AI and emerging tech are reshaping how young people work, learn and live, and almost none are in the rooms where the rules get written, or the projects get funded.
The conversation is owned by a few big technology companies, a few governments, and well-resourced institutions. The people who will live longest with the consequences have the least structured way to be heard, or to act.
The least consulted.
The most affected.
This closes that gap: with voice, and with action.
What it is
Not a roundtable: a network that listens, acts, and is heard.
Listen
Each hub sends a rep who grounds a short read in real local conversations about how technology is landing.
the centre of gravity
Act
Reps organise into regional assemblies that turn findings into real projects, dialogues and partnerships.
Amplify
Once a year it assembles globally, and the shared picture is carried to the rooms where technology is decided.
Most of the work is regional action, not a report.
What you get, honestly
A real say, and a real hand in what gets built.
What we strive for
Real conversations about how technology, starting with AI, is landing in your city.
A seat in your regional assembly and the global one.
A hand in a real project, dialogue or partnership.
Your perspective published in a youth-authored read we carry to real decision makers.
How it's organised
Two axes, assembled into one global voice.
Geographic
Regional assemblies
Reps group into the eight Global Shapers regions, each led by an elected Regional Lead: they drive the local action.
Cross-cutting
Thematic pods
Three pods deepen the themes and feed the synthesis: Use cases · Contestation · Social Opinion & Trends.
Once a year
The Global Assembly
Regions and pods convene as one body to adopt the shared picture, set priorities, and elect.
assemblies
Eight regional assemblies · one global voice
founding hub seated
The impact engine
Every region delivers something real.
Projects
Channel hubs into the existing Global Shapers grants and Innovation Prize for tech projects tied to a regional priority.
Dialogues
At least one regional dialogue a year putting young people in the room with policymakers, regulators, or industry.
Partnerships
Broker regional partners to carry the work onward: tech firms, civil society, universities.
At least one concrete output per active region, every year, and each output feeds the next cycle. Every quarterly call includes a short review of impact and reach, so the network sees whether its voice is actually landing.
The rep's commitment
Light by design:
a few hours a quarter.
The quarterly arc
- Q1
Use cases
What's actually being adopted locally, by whom, for what.
- Q2
Contestation & risk
Regulatory, ethical and political flashpoints.
- Q3
Social sentiment & trends
Shifts in public opinion, grassroots movements, generational divergence.
- Q4
Synthesis
The Global Assembly, and elections.
Year 1 theme: AI in society. Within each round, reps work whichever facet is alive locally:
The conversations are the reward. That exposure and network is yours, and it's what makes both the read and the regional projects credible.
The capstone
Once a year, the whole network is one room.
The annual Global Assembly
- Adoptsthe youth-authored State of AI in Society.
- Setsthe cross-regional priorities for the year.
- Handsit to incoming Regional Leads for regional debriefs.
- Electsevery role for the year ahead.
The standing Global Council
Year-round coordination by the 8 Regional Leads + 3 Pod Leads + the central core team. Regions and themes sit in one body, so cross-regional patterns get spotted and shared, not siloed.
once a year
Where your voice is carried
Into the rooms where technology is decided.
A synthesis is only as useful as where it goes. Its reach is built, not assumed: determined by the partnerships established and the content published, with a dedicated advocacy function securing and following up real recipients.
Partnerships established
Regional and global partners broker the work into the convenings where it can land: technology firms, civil society, universities.
Content published
The youth-authored synthesis is shared back to every hub and put in front of real recipients: openly published, clearly labelled as youth perspective.
The read
The State of AI in Society, written by us.
A youth-authored synthesis, grounded in real conversations across 140+ countries and carried to real rooms. It's the trophy that proves a generation was heard, not surveyed.
Written by the founding cohort during Cycle 1 (August to September 2026). Your hub helps shape it.
Global Youth Tech Assembly
The State of AI in Society
A youth-authored read · Edition 01
Whose initiative is it
Starting in Geneva, nominate your representative now.
Year 1: bootstrap
A lean Geneva core team gets it off the ground, and helps the first regional assemblies and pods find their feet.
Year 2: you elect
Every role opens to a vote by active reps at the Global Assembly: core team, Regional Leads, Pod Leads.
Lean centre, strong regions, no empire building.
In plain terms
A hub-led, opt-in coalition within the Global Shapers Community. It holds no official authority, issues no official positions, and speaks for no institution. Its outputs are youth perspectives, clearly labelled as such: nothing it publishes binds any institution.
Questions
The honest answers.
Is this only about AI?
No: it's emerging tech, broadly. AI is the Year 1 focus because it's the live issue. Recent issues will be evaluated and topics raised that impact young people most.
What's the time commitment?
About ten short local conversations and a short questionnaire each round, plus at least two of the four quarterly calls across the year (times rotate so no zone is always favoured). One rep per hub carries it.
Who can join, and who's the rep?
Any hub. One rep, nominated by the Curator, and that can be the Curator. Small or new hubs are welcome; one motivated rep is enough.
What language do we work in?
Work in your language and add a short English summary. Pod volunteers help with translation where a language is shared.
What do we actually get?
A real say, a global peer network across 140+ countries, interview and synthesis skills, and a path to real stages, plus a regional project, dialogue or partnership your hub helped shape.