This is cognition. This is conversation. This is 42.

Who are we?

We’re a handful of young folk who have this crazy, really radical, kind of idealistic belief that we can play our part in human progress by connecting people who share similar passions and ideas for advancing society in the smallest and largest of ways. We, and the people we want to reach, are driven by great innovators and disruptors that have fearlessly flung humanity forward at warp-speed in their respective fields of science, technology, philosophy, human (and non-human) rights, culture, entertainment, fashion – the domains and their interactions are limitless, and their positive impacts have been felt by those far outside of their direct sphere of influence.

What the hell do we do?

To pull off this lofty goal of connecting like-minded people, our attack plan is two-fold: 1) we provide a digital platform to create and cultivate a community where people can interact, and 2) underpinning these connections are live events with prominent names that inspire our community. But 42 is not merely an events company: the events are in place to facilitate the communication, connection, and sharing of big ideas between the people who have them.

42 welcomes people from diverse backgrounds across education, employment, cultures, and subcultures. From scientists to sneakerheads, teachers to Trekkies, and the freaks and geeks in between.

Our aim.

We connect through tech, and educate through events. This is how 42 helps our community recognise and realise their own meaning and purpose within life. We want to educate, entertain, and empower our ambitious audiences with electrifying speakers on a broad spectrum of topics, and a means to connect with each other via a digital platform.

That said, we are cognizant of some unfortunate realities. We know that creativity and innovation is nurtured through education, yet quality education (scholarly or otherwise) seems almost unattainable without a hefty bank account to back it up. This is an injustice that we want correct. 42’s initiative is not just to connect its members – to meet our goal, we will be donating a portion of our ticket sales to initiatives that will connect a total of 42 million young people to an educational system so that they can realise their potential through schooling and skills acquisition. These initiatives will be carefully selected based on evidence of their effectiveness – not on their name – to ensure that there is not just an increase in the quantity of young people that will benefit from this, but the quality of the benefit itself.

Our speakers & our guarantee.

Even though 42 is focused on educating our members through events, our speakers will not be profound (or pseudo-profound) ‘intellectualists’. Of course, many will have come from an academic/research background which they have excelled in to the point that they can make their discoveries and debates accessible to the public, but we want our members to come away with intelligence, interest, and inspiration – not only intellect.

We choose our speakers on simple but crucial criteria: 1) they have a unique take on a certain issue that humanity is facing, and a body of work to back it up; 2) they share our goal of improving access to quality education, and; 3) the conversation they spark adds to human progress, rather than subtracting or shying away from it altogether. With this winning formula, we guarantee that our audiences will leave each event smarter, sharper, better than when they walked in.