"The final song had been sung, the 2012 and 2013 host cities had been announced. It appeared that One Young World 2011 was driving along the inevitable path of all closing ceremonies: the declarations of hope for the coming future, the long list of thank yous, the slow shuffling out of the conference hall for the last time.

And then something happened, something that couldn’t have happened at another summit. Seven One Young World delegates—representing North America, South America, Africa, Australia, the Middle East, Europe, and Asia—were invited by One Young World co-founder David Jones to rush the stage.

They burst up the steps and stood front-and-center, as the counselors on stage—warriors for change like Oscar Morales—slipped to the background. Shouts of “Get them a mic! Get them a mic!” boomed through the crowd. Co-founder Kate Robertson ran and grabbed a mic from the podium and handed it to 17-year-old UK delegate Parker Liautaud, well known at One Young World for the two trips he took to the North Pole to raise awareness about climate change.

Liautaud looked out at the crowd of fellow delegates. “After Bob Geldof’s message that we’ve all done great individual projects but haven’t done anything collectively yet, we started talking about a new, massive global campaign.”

Parker handed the microphone to South African delegate Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh, a 22 year old famous among the crowd for his riveting speeches on leadership and his work to unite student leaders in his home country. “Imagine a thousand people that are sitting right here getting a thousand other people to do one thing on one day at the same time,” Sizwe instructed. “In case you don’t study mathematics, that’s a million people.”

“But what do we do? In my country, I have different issues than in your country,” Sizwe said. “What’s that one issue that we rally around? Well, the way global movements are going today, instead of trying to impose an issue, we can create something that you can put your hopes and dreams into. And that’s a statement and an image that we all rally around. And that statement is one simple thing: the world needs a wakeup call.”

Sizwe continued, “On the 21st of February, 2012—2-1-2-1-2— … outside every government building in the world, to every corporation, to every individual and every community, let us as One Young World send one message: World, this is a wakeup call!”

“Africa, this is a wakeup call!” Mpofu-Walsh yelled before handing the mic down the line of delegates.

“North America, this is a wakeup call!”

“Austrilasia, this is a wakeup call!”

“Middle East, this is a wakeup call!”

“South America, this is a wakeup call!”

“Asia, this is a wakeup call!”

“Europe, this is a wakeup call!”

“World, this is a wakeup call!”

A URL flashed on the screen overhead—www.ourwakeupcall.org.

Delegate Erin Schrode, the 20-year-old founder of Teens Turning Green, a student-led eco-organization that has used social media to turn into a powerhouse, grabbed the mic. “So everyone I want you to type it in right now, #wakeupcall on Twitter. Just type it in; don’t hit send.”

The crowd scrambled to take out their phones, iPads and laptops. Erin urged the thousands, including French President Nicolas Sarkozy, watching through the livestream, to do the same.