Innovator’s Corner: Dr. Jane Goodall on Making a Difference

Considered the largest tech event in the world, Web Summit is an annual conference held in Lisbon, Portugal. The event has become a global nexus for tech’s most brilliant minds, its most disruptive entrepreneurs, its die-hard advocates and its fiercest critics. Web Summit 2020 took place online from December 2-4. Nearly 100,000 attendees, exhibitors and speakers gathered to ask a simple question: Where to next?

The Society of Innovators’ Jason Williams helped provide media coverage for the event. During a press conference following her presentation, he was able to speak with Dr. Jane Goodall about inspiring the next generation of innovators.

Do you have any advice for my seven year old daughter about what the future holds? What should she know about being able to make a difference?

I hope that your seven year old daughter will join Roots & Shoots which is now in 68 countries. And then think about what she can do. What is she passionate about?

Different people are good at doing different things to make a difference. If you’re passionate about litter, you collect litter and you inspire your friends to help you. And you tell your parents to recycle in the proper bins. If you’re passionate about animals, you learn about them. Perhaps you can go and volunteer in a shelter. And so it depends on you. You do what you feel passionate about. I’m sure you have supportive parents who will help you do that.

And Roots & Shoots is free. It doesn’t cost you anything. You can find out about it on the internet.

The mission of Roots & Shoots is to empower young people to affect positive change in their communities. More information can be found here.

Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE, is an ethologist and environmentalist, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and a UN Messenger of Peace. More information about the Jane Goodall Institute can be found here. 

Photo by Bill Wallauer.