By the World Values Day team
World Values Day on social media
Our social media campaign this year was a tremendous success. On Twitter alone, our reach was 75 million people across 67 countries. Our other social media channels were very active too – in particular LinkedIn, which this year showed record activity both before and on the day.
As in previous years, caring environments where values are constantly being put into action such as hospitals, hospices, care homes and schools featuring prominently, with a stream of photos and selfies posted throughout the day.
Involvement was by no means confined to the caring sectors, however. Groups and organisations large and small, public and private, charitable and commercial took part in the day. Most of these do this internally and many we never hear about, but those we do know about this year include Volvo, Korn Ferry, PWC and KPMG. There are many others we have spotted but there will be many more we don’t yet know about. Please do let us know if your group or organisation took part and you haven’t yet shared on social media!
The Valuesthon
The other big area of online activity was our first-ever Valuesthon, a rolling series of events running back-to-back and sometimes side-by-side from New Zealand at the beginning of the day through to the West Coast of the US and Canada at the day’s end.
During our planning process, the number of events crept up and up until finally, as many as 32 events of all kinds appeared in the Valuesthon. They dealt with the role of values in a multitude of contexts – including values in society, values in organisations and leadership, values in education, values in conversation, values in the arts, values in finance, values in the battle against corruption and malfeasance, values in reflection and meditation, and (perhaps a first) values in cookery.
Those who wanted to attend Valuesthon events but weren’t able to do so will be pleased to know that a number were recorded and can be now be viewed by those who missed them on the day. Please look through the Valuesthon Schedule on the World Values Day website, looking out for the See Recording button to find the ones you want.
Among those still available to view are the events hosted by professors and artists, mostly based in New York, involved in the Arts and Values Panel Discussion, and the international array of talking heads in the World Values Day Values Café discussing the crucial role of values in opening our minds and hearts to opposing points of view in conversation and helping to bridge the deep divides caused by our prejudgments about others.
There were so many wonderful events in the Valuesthon that it is invidious to picked out some and not others, but nevertheless we do want to mention the outstanding eight seminars designed by Kathryn McEwan of Resilience.TV which illuminated the role of values in coping with this strange and unnerving new world of work that the Covid-19 epidemic has thrust on us.
A fitting end to the Valuesthon was provided by the Values-based Education all-day online conference the day after World Values Day where educators from around the world explored the vision and challenges faced in maintaining a truly values-based school.
The final event of this World Values Day campaign is actually taking place today, Thursday 22nd October, exactly one week after the day. An international online conference The Value of Our Life During Difficult Times will run from 17:00 to 18:30 CET / (16.00 to 17.30 BST). Organised by the dauntless Manjola Perja of ALVA Albanian Values, with Richard Barrett and speakers from Western Balkan organizations, Turkey and elsewhere will discuss the values that can unite us in overcoming the consequences of the COVID-19 crisis and will also highlight Women Values Heroes of COVID 19.
Thank you everyone
Information about what went on around the globe on World Values Day is still coming in, so our report is still quite incomplete. Dozens of schools, groups and organisations downloaded the Values Challenge and we have yet to hear from them about their sessions. Many organisations large and small spend the day looking at their own organisational values and taking action on them internally or in their communities. In many countries where English is not widely used, we often are not able easily to pick up on what they are doing through the usual social media channels, but wait for them to let us know in due course.
To all of them, and to all the many thousands around the world who were involved in organising events and activities, preparing tools and resources for World Values Day, or working tirelessly to spread the word on social media, we express our deepest appreciation and gratitude. Our common purpose in raising global awareness of the importance of values and their practice has never been more vital and needed.
We look forward to getting together with you all before too long to think and plan again for next year’s World Values Day!
Many thanks to all of you!
World Values Day team
