Future Leaders Competition 2023

“I never imagined I would be the IIC’s Future Leaders’ Competition winner. Working alongside my co-authors, I was able to garner significant professional and personal development. This was my favourite part of the journey, and I will be eternally grateful for it. I must applaud the IIC for amplifying young people’s voices through this competition. Though I know it will be difficult to identify a theme as timely and appropriate as ‘Metaverse Policy Priorities,’ I am confident that the organisation will outperform itself, and as such, I would like to take this opportunity to encourage all future leaders to please participate in the competition.”
2022 Future Leaders’ Competition Winner, Tatyana Mclean.

What is this initiative?

The Future Leaders’ Competition, now in its sixth year, and supported by the members of the IIC, encourages and promotes original thought in the areas of communications and policy.

What do you need to do?

This year entrants are asked to produce an essay, submitted electronically, on the following topic:

Cybersecurity on the Edge?

As the capabilities and opportunities of online technologies evolve, how can policy develop to ensure robust levels of security are maintained? With increasingly complex interdependencies within networks, and the challenges presented by edge devices and IoT in general, is ‘security by design’ possible? Can policy move quickly enough to prevent misuse of the data flowing across networks?

In your essay for this year’s Future Leaders’ Competition, you should consider how breaches in cybersecurity might be mitigated, with a particular emphasis on privacy. We want you to consider the challenges to security and privacy as technology develops and transforms, and we’re interested in your views on where responsibility lies for managing these challenges.

You should:

• Development of a sustained and well-structured response, addressing the question asked
• Evidence and justification of position
• Awareness & understanding of contending viewpoints
• Commercial awareness & understanding of competitive market forces

Hear from the Chair of this year’s judging panel, Derek Wilding, and Vice-Chair, Andrea Millwood Hargrave, for a further explanation of this year’s topic: