The Guardian media partners with media guru

The Guardian, London; has entered into a partnership with MediaGuru and is to hold one of its 2012 Activate Summits in India for the first time. The Guardian Activate events bring together many of the world's brightest and most influential figures to debate how technology is driving positive social change on a global scale. The first Activate event took place in London in 2009 and the event expanded into the US market last year with the first Activate New York taking place in April 2011. 

Previous speakers have included Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, Arianna Huffington, editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post, Craig’sList founder Craig Newmark and NYU professor Clay Shirky. The 2012 Guardian Activate summit in India is currently planned to take place in October in Delhi, and will be organised in partnership with MediaGuru, the media consulting, technology, and entertainment company which has a presence in London, Singapore and all across India. 

The Guardian-MediaGuru partnership will see the Activate brand expanding into other territories, including Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore. It will also see an ambitious expansion of the Activate digital platform on guardian.co.uk which will become an online content and networking hub for professionals working with technology to drive global change. Announcing the expansion, Alan Rusbridger said: “Technology is bringing the world closer together and at the Guardian we’re committed to encouraging debate between diverse, global audiences in line with our open and digital-first strategies. 

“Of the 31 million unique users who access the Guardian’s online content each month, 21 million of those are visiting our site from outside of the UK. We’re therefore thrilled to be bringing the Guardian Activate summit to new countries where technology is having a real impact, and look forward to joining and facilitating more fascinating conversations about the influence of web technologies in person, as well as online.” 

Sanjay Salil, Managing Director, MediaGuru, said: “By 2020, it is predicted that India will have 600 million internet users, making it the biggest open internet access market in the world. MediaGuru is proud to be bringing the Guardian Activate platform to India, where a gathering of technology, media, and social innovation leaders can help shape India’s technology and new media agenda, and facilitate a quantum leap in the ever-increasing business collaboration between India and the West.”