The demographic of people yet to be connected to the Internet poses a complex challenge to policy makers, businesses and researchers alike: as of July 2015, only 3.1 billion of 7.3 billion people were connected to the Internet. Rates of Internet adoption in most parts of the developing world are of concern, where over two thirds of the population is yet to reap the benefits of connectivity.

Against this backdrop, new strategies for connecting the next billion have been initiated in various parts of the world by businesses, civil society organizations and governments. The Dynamic Coalition on Innovative Approaches to Connecting the Unconnected seeks to collect and disseminate information about innovative technological and business practices that have proven effective in improving broadband adoption, as well as explore various supply and demand side drivers of adoption in unconnected communities.

After a short presentation of the newly created Dynamic Coalition and a description of the work that has already been done under the initiative by the speakers in the first twenty minutes, Professor Christopher Yoo will moderate a highly interactive discussion with the panelists and the audience, with a view to identify what are the most important supply and demand-side issues in the short term. Everyone present at the meeting as well as remotely will be given an opportunity to contribute to the discussion, and all comments and suggestions will be taken into account in order to elaborate the roadmap for the Dynamic Coalition. 

Confirmed speakers:

1. Christopher S. Yoo, University of Pennsylvania (Civil Society)

2. Michael Kende, ISOC (Technical Community)

3. Helani Galpaya, LIRNEAsia (Civil Society)

4. Rajan S. Mathews, COAI (Business)

5. Anriette Esterhueysen, APC (Civil Society)

6. Alex Wong, WEF (Business)

7. Karen McCabe, IEEE (Technical Community)