The 4 Moderators
Federica Baggio
Nationality: Italy
Year of birth: 2001. IYTT Youth Fellow since 2022
“Over the last four years as a Youth Fellow, I’ve had the opportunity to meet incredibly motivated young adults, each with their own unique stories and motivations to bring change to their communities. I am excited to fully immerse myself in the Conference in Seoul, it will be a challenge to be on the other and I hope to create a calming and open environment that facilitates connections within a widely transnational cohort. My biggest desire is that the energy and enthusiasm that the Conferences creates can last long after the final presentations, inspiring participants to continue engaging in fruitful discussions and remain hopeful it is possible to navigate troubled times times together.“
Joe Earnshaw
Nationality: United Kingdom
Year of Birth: 2002 IYTT Youth Fellow since 2022
I have been involved in the IYTT since attending IYC22 in Gothenburg, Sweden. At the time I had no idea where the IYTT would take me in the years that followed, not least to Korea. I consider it an honour, therefore, to be able to facilitate our first conference in Asia! Although I am shocked by the depth and breadth of new ideas that arise from the IYC each year, I believe the specific diversity of this year’s conference is set to bring something truly novel to the IYTT and the world at large. I am equally excited that we are being hosted by the GGGI and I hope the participants will be inspired by their work throughout their time with us. I look forward to learning from all the future IYTT Youth Fellows!
Miranda Tate
Nationality: Swedish
Year of birth: 2000, IYTT Youth Fellow since 2025
“Since becoming involved with the IYTT, I have had the privilege of meeting an incredible community of young people and being exposed to so many enriching opportunities. What struck me and has stayed with me, from my time as a participant at the 2025 IYC in Washington, D.C., and through staying active in IYTT this past year, is the resolve, drive, and sense of community you will find among Youth Fellows. I am beyond excited to meet the new cohort of Youth Fellows in Seoul and see how they bring their different repertoires of knowledge, garnered from academia, advocacy, and personal experiences, into conversations on bettering and promoting democracy and democratic values.“
Urban Strandberg
Nationality: Swedish, Present residency: Gothenburg, Sweden, Year of birth: 1966, IYTT Manager and Co-founder
“Born in 1966 and quite young when starting to take an interest in societal issues and politics, some of my formative milestones include the fall of dictatorships in Greece, Spain, Portugal, Chile, and Argentina, to mention a few notable examples. The fall of the autocratic regimes of Eastern Europe in 1989 was the most powerful change-maker in my mind. That sister and brother Europeans in Eastern Europe were eventually offered a chance to live and dwell in an open society was of tremendous importance for me. Now cultural life, media, academia, business enterprising, bureaucracies and legal systems, as well as representative government, could be organized on the grounds of legality and rule of law. Now social institutions could be developed to fairly support humans individually and in groups in their life projects. The political battles could now be about ideological valuations and interest-based standpoints, not a fight between an open society and an autocratic one. People would still have disagreements but would agree on the richness and potential of an open society. Now, more than 30 years later, I am scared and worried that regimes, political parties, and individual citizens in Europe and overseas are attracted to old autocratic values. My hope for the conference is that all the lovely participants will contribute fresh arguments and ideas on how to sustain the resilience of open society values and its social institutions. I will bring my enthusiastic personality, my curiosity of other people and their ideas, and my ability to bring the very best out of other people.”
