The WISE summit is bringing together over 1,000 participants including experts, educators and politicians from over 150 different nations. Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani and his wife Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al-Misnad were also in attendance for the opening session of the three-day summit.

Delivering the opening address for the summit, Qatari Emiress Sheikha Mozah stated that they will be announcing a new global initiative which will provide education opportunities for 61 million children of elementary school age who have been deprived of learning. Also attending the forum as special guests of Sheikha Mozah was Emine Erdoğan and Information, Industry and Technology Minister Nihat Ergün.

Emine Erdoğan gave a talk at a panel entitled, "Educations and Cultures: Balancing Global and Local?" in which she underlined that during this era in which the boundaries have been lifted in economic, social, cultural, religious and all other areas, education is the only method of accessing all forms of knowledge necessary.

"As one of the great thinkers of our nation Mevlana said, 'The seeds of knowledge are not to be stored inside people's minds, it is a great waste to use the human brain as a silo.' We are adopting an understanding of education based on the principles of value," stated Erdoğan.