Right now our media is going through revolutionary changes. The first media revolution came about following the invention of the printing press; this second is all about the internet and mobile communications. The first created an expansion of our way of thinking and led to a period we now call the Renaissance. Will this second revolution also be combined with a shift in consciousness?

A consumer society values independence and material gain – the extrinsic rather than the intrinsic. Taken to its extreme, this leads to competition, greed and a misplacement of value, as happened at the core of the banking industry.

At a time when we need instead to appreciate the creative potential of humanity, our interconnectivity and our relationship with nature, is it a coincidence that we have developed technology that enables us to connect instantaneously to each other all around the world? Is it a coincidence that social media embodies three of our deepest human needs: to communicate, to create and to share?

This September a group of people who are passionate about exploring how these new developments in media can be a force for good, will converge at the first Transformational Media Summit. Examining emerging trends, we will look constructively at how media created with compassion and wisdom can help us deepen our understanding of ourselves and overcome the present-day challenges we face.

I founded the summit with a desire to see more media with the potential to transform conflict into peace, consumption into creativity, and to inspire lives that have a harmonious relationship with our natural environment.

A group of visionary people working in the media, who are already leading the way in creating meaningful content such as is published by Positive News, will gather at the summit. These include filmmaker Dr Elizabeth Lindsey, the first female Fellow and Polynesian explorer in the history of the National Geographic Society. She will be speaking on the developing field of ‘cultural intelligence’ – a dynamic, holistic system of knowledge based on indigenous science.

Elizabeth is currently working on a book with award-winning photographer Lisa Kristine, chronicling their year-long journey in search of wisdom that is vanishing from the world’s most remote cultures. Elizabeth is also filming the pilot for a television series in the US, exploring ways in which cultural intelligence addresses 21st century challenges.

Also joining the event is Maddy Harland, co-founder of Permaculture Magazine, who has been a champion of transformational media throughout her career.

“The true purpose of media, like art, is to communicate new ideas that deepen our understanding of humanity – and at this time in our history, to communicate our capacity to live in a more creative and gentle way on the planet,” believes Maddy.

Elizabeth and Maddy will join an inspiring group of pioneers in film, journalism, music, web 2.0, new economics and social enterprise, to try to make sense of the script we have written for our lives and look at how we can create a more positive script through media.

The Transformational Media Summit takes place on 27–28 September 2012 at Sadlers Wells in London