Indonesia Writers Festival 2020: Millennials to be Creative during the Pandemic

Monday, 21 September 2020 was the first day of Indonesia Writers Festival (IWF) 2020. Conducted virtually, this signature event of IDN Times lasted for 6 days. Since it came up with the vision of "empowering Indonesians through writing", Indonesia Writers Festival (IWF) 2020 discussed a lot of things related to literacy, heeded through rich points of view.

To open up the event, IDN Media Founder and CEO, Winston Utomo, welcomed every single participant and expressed, “When the team delivered their intention to hold the event amid the pandemic still, I agreed right away. They were right, this festival must remain, it still got to be held virtually.” For Winston, Indonesia Writers Festival (IWF) 2020 carried out a substantial message regarding IDN Media's vision and mission, namely "to democratize information".

The Editor-in-Chief of IDN Times, Uni Lubis, added, "Some time ago, we collaborated with the World Economic Forum (WEF) to launch the WEF ASEAN Youth Survey. Interestingly, the majority of young people in ASEAN admitted that they were able to survive so far, some even found new business lines amid the pandemic. This proved their creativity―aligned with this year's theme: 'Be Creative during Pandemic.' The speakers we invite are all surely competent, so thank you, speakers, the team, and all participants, especially the IDN Times Community Writers. Thank you for taking part in this festival."

On the very first day, Fenty Effendy, a journalist successfully publishing several well-known biographies, such as Sutopo Purwo Nugroho Terjebak Nostalgia, Karni Ilyas: Lahir untuk Berita, and various other books, handled the first session. Revealing some fundamental things related to writing a biography, Fenty mentioned, "Not only those who are well-known, but we can also write about those people who are less famous having proven capability of making achievements and/or positive contributions to society. Basically, it aims to inspire more people."

After Fenty, Septi Riyadi Maulida, the SEO Specialist at IDN Media, shared some great tips to optimize article performance. She explained, “SEO is very important whenever it comes to writing articles. Not limited to media, SEO can also be utilized in e-commerce, business, brands, and many more. Good SEO can generate organic, evergreen, and, of course, sustainable traffic."

Over the next five days, Indonesia Writers Festival (IWF) 2020 will bring up more notable speakers from various backgrounds who are willing to share their perspectives and expertise around the realm of literacy. Don’t forget to keep an eye out on IDN Times’ YouTube and Instagram live streaming!