One World Week is a festival celebrating international culture and diversity that is annually hosted at the University of Warwick. Now in its seventeenth year, One World Week will run from Friday 20 January to Saturday 28 January 2012. As well as being an entirely student-run event, OWW is a non-profit initiative that aims to stimulate personal development, inspire a view based on acceptance and appreciation of the world’s cultures, and encourage awareness of issues which affect our One World.

OWW 2012 is split into four sections – sports, nights, festivals and forum, across five days, each with a different world theme as follows:

• Asia and Australasia
• Europe
• Middle East and Africa
• Americas and Caribbean
• UK and Ireland

One World Week co-ordinator Julian Ried speaks on his involvement, “I have been involved with One World Week for three years now and I still feel that it is one of the events that makes the University of Warwick a special place to study. Having grown up in five countries and having been exposed to so many cultures all my life, I have always wanted to give students the opportunity to broaden their international perspective. One World Week is a great way that this can be achieved.”

Julian explains what’s new this year, “We have made a lot of changes for One World Week 2012, ranging from our new marketing image to a change of focus away from the night’s events to the festival and forum events. Having worked on the event as the Coordinator for almost a year now, my expectations are very high and the team has been excellent so far.”

The majority of OWW events are open to the general public, this includes the forum talks, the festival events in the students’ union during the day, the sports events and night events such as The Fashion Show and The World Music Concert. Julian anticipates that, “The Fashion Show will be a particular highlight this year.” It provides a platform for contemporary international design talent and promotes the diverse array and fusion of cultures through models and dancers.

Another exciting event is The World Music Concert. It promises to guide the audience on a journey of music from region to region across the globe. Previously The World Music Concert has hosted Grammy-winning hip hop violinist Miri Ben-Ari and R&B singer Bluey Robinson.

Tickets for both The Fashion Show and The World Music Concert can be purchased at the Arts Centre Box Office.

The forum attracts high-profile speakers from across the world for a series of panel debates. This exciting platform of ideas discusses important global issues followed by networking sessions with the guest speakers. Forum events include such distinguished speakers as Chris Huhne MP (Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change), David Hone (Senior Climate Change Advisor for Shell), Helge Urdal (Director of Generation Dynamic Performance at National Grid) and Steven Pattison (Director of ICC UK) discussing pressing issues such as; The Future of Energy; Globalisation of Culture; The Middle East; Economic Migration; and Inspiring a Brighter Future.

For more information on One World Week please visit the One World Week website.