Guy Ryan is an entrepreneur and leader. He’s built numerous ventures, both for-profit and charitable, and is a passionate advocate of the power of young people to create solutions to the big issues of our time.
He visited our club on 31 May to speak about his ventures since childhood, creating inspiring ways for young people to change the world and "make epic Sh** happen"!
One of Guy's creations, Festival for the Future is on 8-9 June. This is a two day programme of inspirational speakers, future-focused panels, workshops, the political party debate, the marketplace, and a catered lunch each day. See the link at the bottom of the report for more information.
Brenda Lazelle reports
Guy grew up in Granity with all the upsides and downsides of living in a West Coast community. While he loved the adventure playground the Coast offered, he was one of very few in his class to leave the Coast and go on to tertiary education.
He gained entry to Otago Uni and moved to Dunedin – but being a passionate surfer didn’t necessarily focus on his studies. However, while doing his Masters in Science Communication, he set up
a film production company with other students from the course and started producing 25 minute documentaries.This coincided with a growing awareness of how overwhelmed young people were feeling about big issues such as climate change and inequality. His Masters project was an opportunity to give voice to four young people taking action on these important issues in Carving the Future (watch it here). This documentary won the Colorado International Film Festival and showed Guy just how powerful the stories told by our inspiring young people can be.
Out of this success the vision for Inspiring Stories emerged – capturing young New Zealander’s efforts to unleash their potential to change the world. Guy pitched the idea to Vodafone and was awarded $80k to set up the charity Inspiring Stories – piloting several programmes throughout the year. These early efforts translated into over a decade of events, leadership programmes and conferences to enable young people to give effect to their ideas of solutions to the big issues.
A flagship event, the Festival for the Future starts next week in Wellington appropriately, as the first event held at the newly opened Tākina Events Centre. Over 1400 participants are expected including business leaders, students and young professionals. It’s not too late to register here. And in response to recent weather events a new national challenge will be launched at the Festival called Impact Challenge – inviting people to explore solutions to climate change and community resilience.
But after years of dedication to his vision, Guy has handed over the baton and stepped back from the CE role but will remain on the Board. We will watch with interest as his new team take the organisation into the future.