Venue
Meet the lovely ladies, Mele Manitisa and Florida Tumulango who are currently putting together the Pacific IGF’s first hybrid virtual meeting: Pacific IGF 2021 and APTLD which is taking place from 6 – 9th September, 2021.
Mele Manitisa is from Tonga, her experience as a Pacific Islander studying and working in New Zealand has helped her understand the various cultures, as well as, major ICT related issues faced by the region. Having previously been exposed to similar events by APNIC, Tonga Women in ICT and Internet Governance in the past, Mele believes in such events transforming into strategy creation and policy change.
Florida Tumulango is a communications officer at Savvy Vanuatu and has experience working in various areas of events management and project management. Florida also has skills in content creation, marketing, outreach and social media marketing the means currently being used to heavily promote the event online.
Mele and Florida will be coordinating with 7 hub facilitators across Tonga, Solomons, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Kirbati, Samoa and Tuvalu on the lead up to the event, on the ground on the day as well as ensuring that proper documentation is in process – invoices, receipts etc. They will also be liaising with moderators and speakers, sponsors, stakeholders, attendees, and overall logistics for Pacific IGF.
Florida Tumulango is a communications officer at Savvy Vanuatu
Mele and Florida are both in STEM/Women and ICT and have expertise dealing with persons with disabilities allowing Pacific IGF organisers to achieve their aim of Accessibility and inclusivity by providing equal access and opportunities to everyone to participate as special provisions are being arranged for people who need support (case-by-case basis).
“I initially thought Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is just for the technical people. Taking up this role has extended my knowledge and understanding that IGF is for everyone including myself as an academia and my dad as a farmer. So, working as the Event Coordinator for the joint Pacific IGF & APTLD 2021 feels so rewarding knowing that I’m contributing to the betterment of my Pasifika community specifically, in relation to the internet.” – Mele Manitisa
“I had no clue what Pacific IGF was until I was contracted to do this work. I now realize the internet presents big opportunities for the Pacific people in all sectors of education, health, agriculture, tourism, business etc. Promoting and educating the Pacific people on these benefits and guiding them to safe usage is a big need for our people.” – Florida Tumulango
The Pacific Internet Governance Forum (P-IGF) is a joint partnership between the Pacific Chapter of the Internet Society (PICISOC), Asia Pacific Top-Level Domain (APTLD), the UN- Internet Governance Forum Secretariat, the University of the South Pacific, Internet Society (ISOC) , Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC), Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), Internet NZ and other key stakeholders across the Pacific.
The Pacific IGF adopts a multistakeholder process which aims to bring together civil society, businesses, governments, academic and research institutes, NGOS, private and public sector and other key stakeholders. and believes in an inclusive approach.
Click the following link to register for Pacific IGF hybrid virtual event: https://aptld80.com.fj/
Source: https://pacificonline.org/
