ITU Telecom World 2009 In Review The second Youth Forum took place in 2002 in Hong Kong alongside Telecom Asia. In 2003, the event became global with the Youth Forum held at Telecom World in Geneva. Selecting Youth Fellows: ITU invites each Member State to nominate young people to take part in the Youth Forum at either a regional or World Telecom events. These invitations are passed on to the country’s universities or institutions of higher education, which submit possible candidates who must be students aged between 18 and 23. Each University or higher institute evaluates the students’ applications and sends those it recommends to the national government, which selects two male and two female candidates to put forward to ITU. A special committee appointed by ITU makes a final selection of one man and one woman from each country through an essay competition on a topic chosen by ITU. These become “Youth Fellows” whose travel accommodation and subsistence costs are met by ITU, in cooperation with Youth Forum sponsors, ranging from large ICT companies to governments and financial institutes. 161 Youth Forum Summary Report