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Livestream Programme of the Annual Meeting of the New Champions

Hundreds of participants are expected to attend the Annual Meeting of New Champions in Tianjin from 13-15 September 2010. Driving growth through sustainability is fundamental for global, national and business competitiveness in the 21st century.

This year’s programme will focus on how to increase energy efficiency, lower carbon emissions, develop green technology and rebuild basic infrastructure. Key sessions listed below will be streamed live on Livestream, key quotes will be live tweeted on the Forum’s Twitter feed, and high resolution photos will be available for free download on Flickr. You can follow the official Twitter list of the participants attending the meeting.

We would also like to discuss the future of the region with the general public on Youku in the Summer Davos Debates
Livestream Programme after the break...

Congratulations to Technology Pioneers 2011!

 

The World Economic Forum today announced its new class of Technology Pioneers, comprising 31 of the most innovative technology start-ups from around the world. These companies represent the cutting edge in innovation and are poised to have a critical impact on the future of business, industry and society. These innovators will be presented with their recognition during the Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin, People’s Republic of China, from 13 to 15 September 2010.

 

The Technology Pioneers 2011 are active in areas such as antibody discovery and optimization platforms, augmented reality, faster and cheaper genome sequencing, location-based social networking, on-line security and reputation management, smart energy solutions, and water management and treatment. Through the selection process this year, the Forum witnessed the ever-increasing importance of finding clean and green solutions to meet the world’s energy and consumer needs, reflected both in the number of candidacies received in the clean tech sector and in the final number of Technology Pioneers selected in that category – a record 13 companies.

You can meet the team, see the full list of winners, and download the report on the Tech Pioneer Blog.

You can also follow @techpioneers on Twitter or watch interviews with the Technology Pioneers below.

Together again

At the World Economic Forum we celebrated today the inauguration of our newly extended headquarters in Cologny, Switzerland. Having previously been split between the "old" headquarters and a rented city centre office, the new building extension has allowed the 313 staff members based in Geneva to be together again under one roof.

The new building includes a large cafeteria where staff can lunch together, bringing together colleagues who had previously only seen each other in meetings. The campus feel to the new office, along with the recent good weather and a renewed sense of camaraderie, has meant that the first week in the new offices has had a first-day-at-school feel to it.

Whilst many colleagues are adjusting to their new commute (55% of the staff now come by bike or by bus), the larger location outside the city centre means that the new building can act as a gathering place for the Forum's communities.

Vote on the best video and decide who will attend the Summer Davos

We have received over 130 video entries about sustainability to the Summer Davos Debates on Youku, one of China’s main video portals. Together with our friends at Youku and Ogilvy Asia we have chosen ten finalists.

Now we want you to choose the two lucky persons who will attend the Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin. Watch the entries and select the best video according to these criteria: Which video best illustrates sustainable growth? Which is the most creative? Which video best represents the interests of their community? Your opinion matters! Vote early and vote often.

The creators of the two best videos will represent their community at the Summer Davos in Tianjin. This is the first time the World Economic Forum is inviting ordinary citizens from mainland China to participate in the Summer Davos.

The two lucky netizens will be able to have direct conversations with the participants about Driving Growth through Sustainability, the main theme of the meeting. At the conference centre in Tianjin we have set up a special video corner where the two netizens will be able to interview the participants. These interviews will be available on the Forum’s Youku channel.

Please help Pakistan!

During the past few weeks, a group of colleagues from the World Economic Forum visited Pakistan, including areas which have been devastated by floods and landslides. The experience brought home to us the true gravity of the situation.

Pakistan is already affected by serious challenges including energy shortages, poor water supply, and widespread poverty in addition to constant terror threats and a challenging political situation. Torrential rains have now caused the worst floods in 80 years which many of you may have read about or seen in the news over the past month.

The data is staggering. Some 20 million people are affected by the floods and by some estimates one fourth of the land is under water. Many lives have been lost already, many remain in acute danger of disease and malnutrition and it will take months, if not years, to rebuild the infrastructure that has been destroyed.

The Forum has appealed to its staff to collect funds that will be donated to a trusted and reputable local organization such as the Edhi Foundation to ensure that our support reaches people most in need. Once this emergency relief phase is over, we also hope to be involved in longer-term rehabilitation efforts with our members and partners and by supporting local social entrepreneurs such as the Kashf Foundation.

Facebook Survey 2010 - Results

Last week we asked our Facebook fans how we could improve what we do with our fan page. A big thank you to everyone who left a comment or suggestion for us.

There was overwhelming support for adding videos from our meetings and interviews with our speakers, with Edmilson Rodrigues suggesting that we highlight our video competitions. In response we’ve made our YouTube tab more visible. The tab features the latest uploads to our channel and we’ll include playlists and sessions after our meetings.

There was also a lot of support for the idea of discussions around the themes of our meetings and current events. Ayoola Ajanaku and Dan Corey also suggested that we post our papers for people to discuss.

Overall it seemed that what people wanted the most was for us to share as much as possible. So that’s what we’ll try to do. We’ve already made our YouTube and Flickr tabs more prominent and we’ll look at ways to link to all our other social media accounts. Anything that we make public we’ll be sure to share with our fans on Facebook.

If you have any comments or suggestions on what we can do with our Facebook page, please leave them below. Or become a fan of the World Economic Forum on Facebook and leave a comment there.

Forum Employees take take on an adventure in Zermatt

            Getting ready to start the climb                                           And we are off!

This past weekend 63 employees from the Forum, including myself and three colleagues from the Media team, took off on an adventure in Zermatt. On Saturday we all woke bright and early at 5:00am to meet to climb Breithorn. The Breithorn is at 4164 meters and comprises a long ridgeline stretching form Monte Rosa and past the twin peaks of Castor and Pollux.

                        On our way up                                                    View from the top

We took the Klein Matterhorn Cable Care to 2200 meters and than roped up for the glacier travel across the plateau. This was a serious trek with each of us equipped with glaciers boots, crampons, harness, ropes etc and will be in full winter gear. Led by our experienced and very safety conscientious guide Roger from Guide Source, we were taken up to 4000 meters, to one of the most breathtaking views I had ever seen. It was an amazing trip with a great group of colleagues!       

View from the top

Facebook Survey 2010

Thank you to all our Facebook supporters who helped us to beat the 10,000 fan mark over the last few weeks. We want to make sure what we’re sharing is interesting (and hopefully useful!) for you, so we’re asking you what we can do to improve the state of our page.

• Do you want to see more discussions around themes from our meetings?
• Do you want more input from our members – like videos from sessions or interviews with speakers?
• We often livetweet key quotes and ideas from our speakers, would you like to see those on Facebook as well?

Just like in our Twitter survey, let us know your thoughts and suggestions in the survey embedded below. You can also leave comments on our Facebook page We’ll use them to make sure that what we’re sharing with you is relevant, interesting and what you want to see.

Twitter Survey 2010

A week ago we asked our followers how we could improve the Davos Twitter feed @Davos? Thank you for all your inspiring comments and useful suggestions. We wanted to take this opportunity to answer some of them.

“The Forum blog could act as an important "aggregator" and distribute discussions via Twitter. ‘Davos’ is associated with leadership and exchange of ideas - this should be mirrored here and multiplied via Twitter”, suggested @industrialist. “I'd like to see the thoughts of those who make Davos tick more”, added @markpalexander. We have taken your comments at heart and will try with our live tweets from our meetings to capture the most salient and interesting quotes from panellists in 140 characters.

“Give us stories about what is happening on the ground. Make it real and personal”, said @aoconnornd. We are planning to organize more Twitter interviews with key participants and as @TeraThomas pointed out we might “need a twitter journalist at all your events”.

Our main objective is to keep the Davos Twitter feed interesting throughout the entire year or as @billshander nailed it “be a continuous issue-driven thought leadership platform”. @rogerheo we will try hard to “keep bringing something only Davos can create”.

None of us, including @hanmireddy and @Passionfortalen, like to be inundated with tweets, so we will keep it to “one tweet a day”. On a more technical side we have implemented @isaacgriberg’s suggestion of empowering our staff to “tweet via personal (branded) accounts”. There is a whole list of colleagues on Twitter already: http://twitter.com/davos/wefstaff.

Hashtags are useful @mowglitweets but they can also create confusion. Allow us to stick with #WEF for now. As @SidVoice suggested, we have applied to become a 'verified account' to avoid any confusion.

And finally we will continue to “be open, random and supportive” as @swissbusiness wrote. Thanks for all your input and continuous support. For ideas simple leave a comment below or via Twitter @Davos.

Training for leadership at Columbia's School of the Arts

50 Global Leadership Fellows from the World Economic Forum took courses in rhetoric, improvisation, physical presence and voice technique at Columbia University's School of the Arts this July. The workshops were designed to help the next generation of young leaders from around the globe use training in the arts and theatre as a resource for effective leadership.

Click on the picture to watch a video of the training. Read the full story at the website of Columbia University School of the Arts and the article Training for Leading roles in the New York Times.