Youth Asia and Regional Partners Announce SEAforCHANGE with 3 key initiatives to unite youths for personal and regional change

MALAYSIA, KUALA LUMPUR, September 10th 2009 --  Citing global competition faced by Southeast Asian countries and the need to engage their biggest asset, their youth population, Youth Asia Sdn Bhd officially announced the Southeast Asia for Change (SEAforCHANGE) movement on www.youthsays.com/seachange, to bring together 1,000,000 Southeast Asian youths between the ages of 15 to 35 in a peer-network for regional change. The movement creates tangible change in Southeast Asia via 3 parts.

The first part of the movement is the SEAforCHANGE Youth Report, where these youths produce a public guide for leaders in business, politics, and media to understand the youth segment and how to lead them.

The second part involves connecting youths with similar goals together to facilitate personal change in their own lives, on a continuous, ongoing basis.

The climax of this movement is the Youth Engagement Summit (YES) 2009 in Kuala Lumpur, where 10 global change icons like Biz Stone, the cofounder of Twitter.com and Randi Zuckenburg, the marketing director of Facebook will speak to the youths.

“Usually, initiatives involving change can only excite a small segment of youths. To engage a mass movement of youths, you cannot be 'too serious', or 'too conceptual'. Young people tend to have a lot of better things to do than change the world! The process has to be fun, authentic, and have immediate results to win the support of the masses." said Khailee Ng, Executive Director of Youth Asia.

The movement begins on www.youthsays.com/seachangewhere 1,000,000 youths aged between 15 to 35 do a simple 8 question survey to produce the report. They are then encouraged to get their peers to do the survey as well. Respondents who do and share the survey stand a chance to win a free trip to the Youth Engagement Summit (YES) 2009 in Kuala Lumpur, including flights, hotel stay, and summit pass worth up to USD2,500. Via the survey, youths are then invited to log into a forum to discuss their goals for personal change, and network with other youths who shares the same goals.

Media powerhouses like Yahoo! As well as major universities, colleges, youth communities and organizations in the region have already pledged their support.

“There are 200 million youths aged in between 25 to 35 in Southeast Asia. When you combine their commitment to personal change, and a report to assist leaders in business and politics to engage them, we can truly anticipate Southeast Asia rise as a regional force." He added.

Details of the Youth Engagement Summit (YES) 2009 can be found at http://yes2009.asia, and the movement can be found on www.youthsays.com/seachange.

*SEAforCHANGE and the Youth Engagement Summit in Malaysia is recognized as a GEW Youth Catalyst Signature event, in collaboration with Malaysian community leader – Youth Entrepreneurs Malaysia

Biggest South East Asia event for Change Aimed at Enterprising Youths

MALAYSIA, KUALA LUMPUR, SEPTEMBER 11^th 2009 – Youth Entrepreneurs Malaysia, the Youth Catalyst for the Global Entrepreneurship Week in Malaysia supports regional youth community leader – Youth Asia, in empowering and gathering more youths to join the SEAforCHANGE initiative. The SEAfor CHANGE initiative, which is a project to bring the collective voices of 1 million youths across South East Asia to voice out their thoughts for Change would also culminate to the Youth Engagement Summit in Kuala Lumpur.

The SEAforCHANGE and the Youth Engagement Summit will be featured as a GEW Youth Catalyst Signature event in Malaysia this year.

‘The voices of the next generation of leaders can be heard through such a platform. Hence, we need enterprising youths who can seize this opportunity to be a part of this moment,’ add Michael Teoh, the Co-Founder of Youth Entrepreneurs Malaysia.

The Youth Engagement Summit Press Conference was held yesterday at the Sime Darby Convention Centre, where top executive leaders from main sponsor, AirAsia, Media Prima, the organizing partners and the American Ambassador to Malaysia were all present.

The 2-days regional summit to be held from the 16^th to the 17 of November will provide youths with the opportunity to meet big names in the youth industry, like Biz Stone, the Co-Founder of Twitter, Randi Zuckenberg, the Marketing Director of Facebook, Sir Bob Geldof, the Founder of LiveAid and Malaysia’s own entrepreneur – Dato’ Seri Tony Fernandes.

Youths can win tickets to the event by doing and sharing the survey on SEAforCHANGE and they stand a chance to win a free trip to the Youth Engagement Summit (YES) 2009 in Kuala Lumpur, including flights, hotel stay, and summit pass worth up to USD2,500. Via the survey, youths are then invited to log into a forum to discuss their goals for personal change, and network with other youths who shares the same goals.

‘This is truly a move by our partner, Youth Asia to engage the youths and empowering their voices at the grassroots through the web. And we at YEM are proud to support this movement with our community partners,’ adds Michael Teoh.

Youth Entrepreneurs Malaysia as the Youth Catalyst for GEW will contribute to the SEAforCHANGE initiative by connecting youth groups in universities, colleges and communities in stating their thoughts and voices  at www.youthsays.com/seachange.

SEAforCHANGE is proudly supported by GEW Youth Catalyst, Youth Entrepreneurs Malaysia together with other community partners like AIESEC, SIFE and various universities and colleges throughout Asia.