Panasonic Held the Kid Witness News Global Summit 2020

Tokyo, Japan - Panasonic Corporation held the Kid Witness News (KWN) Global Summit 2020 online from November 21 to November 22, 2020.
A total of 26 children from 6 schools in 4 countries, as well as teachers and other participants took part in this event during the two days.

KWN is a program in which Panasonic, as part of its activities to support the development of future generations, loans the company's professional video equipment to support children's video production. The program aims to boost the children's creativity and communication skills and foster teamwork through video production. In the past 31 years since the program began in 1989 in the US, over 180,000 participants including teachers have taken part. The videos which cover such themes as Communication, Sports, and the Environment, have been sending a message to problem-solve from the children's perspective.

Each year a global contest had been held by gathering the winning school of each country but starting this year, in an effort to make a greater contribution to the children's development, the contest has been replaced by the KWN Global Summit, which was planned as a place to learn about different cultures and deepen exchanges, and to take a deep dive into global social issues. Furthermore, while this Global Summit had originally been planned to be held during the Tokyo Paralympics in August, due to the impact of COVID-19 it was held online by connecting the various countries.

The Global Summit was held by connecting Panasonic's overseas bases and certain schools online with the Panasonic Center Tokyo serving as the key station. As well as learning sessions on SDGs, a special workshop was held featuring a lecture by Yuichi Ito, a well-known clay animator and a professor at the Graduate School of Film and New Media Tokyo University of the Arts, Animation Department. At the workshop, children from each country tackled themes which they perceived to be social issues, and tried their hand at animation production. (These animations will be uploaded onto the KWN Global Summit 2020 website at a later date.)

The Kids' Award Selection was also held where entry videos with outstanding content were selected from the entry videos representing each country through a vote by the children themselves.

The videos that received the Kids' Award and other detailed information may be viewed on the following website.

KWN Global Summit 2020 https://www.panasonic.com/global/corporate/kwn/summit2020.html

Overview of KWN Global Summit 2020

Sponsor: Panasonic Corporation
Main Venue: Panasonic Center Tokyo 3-5-1 Ariake, Koto-ku, Tokyo
*The Panasonic Center Tokyo was linked to the Panasonic Group bases (including certain schools) in Malaysia and Vietnam via Zoom.
Date: From November 21 to November 22, 2020

# # #