Davos Notebook: In the Bubble, Beyond the Fringe

I’m back from a week at the World Economic Forum and I wanted to collect the things I wrote about and add a little bit more background, thoughts and observations for my friends here on LinkedIn. I'd welcome your thoughts.

• Where are the deals really being done in Davos? Over my years attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, one big change that has happened is the massive expansion of what I call the “Davos Fringe.” All of the activities – the pop up shops, the breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, and the
  closed door meetings – that happen outside the official meeting held at the Congress Centre. I took a look at what it looks like now, and what the implications are for the gathering, and talked a bit about my own experiences with the “Davos Fringe”.
• As anyone who follows me here, on Twitter, and on Facebook knows, I am an avid user of social media as a means to communicate, to keep a finger on the pulse of what's going on, and to exchange ideas. I don’t have much of a rhyme or reason to how I use social media – I simply share the things I read or write, and I read all of your feedback and thoughts with great interest. As such, I am intrigued by the growth of the WEF’s social media team, so it was a real treat to be able to get a little inside knowledge about the way the whole World Economic Forum’s social media machine really works. Also, like all organizations, there are real people sitting behind the usernames, so it was a real pleasure to meet the team behind the WEF’s digital efforts in person while I was there. The WEF has been working on its outreach efforts, and bringing more of what happens in the little Swiss village to the world. I applaud their efforts as it is important as transparency and opening up the discussions to the world are very important. (Here are some photos of the social media team and their operations)

• I had the opportunity to take part in a WEF session on the role of corporate governance on ensuring that businesses are operating in an ethical manner. I’ll write about that separately, but thought it was worth mentioning and linking to the video of the session, in case it is a topic of interest to those reading this. 
• LGBT issues have finally graduated from private discussions on the fringe to the annual meeting agenda. This was an exciting story to write because it was about a couple of things. One is how LGBT issues have broken out of discussions behind closed doors to emerge onto the public stage of Davos and what that means. The other is a bit of a behind the scenes insight and understanding on how any issue makes it from something talked about on the side-lines of Davos into the mainstream discussions. It is a credit to the champions on the issues, the companies and individuals who encouraged the take up of the topic, as well as to the WEF for creating a powerful global platform for the discussion. 
• In this video, I asked other participants at Davos what they thought business needs to think about for the coming year. Each of the delegates I asked came from different sectors and different parts of the world, from headhunters to hedge fund managers and from think tank chiefs to the head of the Rhodes Trust, so the collection of answers was interesting and diverse. Hope you’ll find it interesting as well. I'd love to know what you think is missing.
• Before I went to Davos I asked you to let me know what you wanted me to find out while I was there. One set of questions people asked was around why people actually go to Davos, and in particular what brings NGO’s to Davos. One of the people I met last week is the CEO of Habitat for Humanity. I asked him your questions about what brought him to Davos and why he thought the trip to Davos for the World Economic Forum was useful. I liked his answer – it was clear and to the point. Let me know what you think.
  
• Digital at Davos: Davos is held every year right after the Consumer Electronics Show. There was so much news coming out about new fantastic gadgets, it made me wonder what Davos attendees REALLY use. I know what I like, but I wanted to know if everyone else feels the same. I saw lots of pens and paper, and I often find taking notes on-the-go is faster that way too, but during the WEF meeting I tried out something that might be the way to marry the way I instinctively work and the modern digital world - you'll see the solution when you read the piece. One detail that didn't make it into the final edit of the piece: If you want to find out what people are really using at a place like Davos, who would be the best people to ask? Well, the people running the security scanners at the various entry points to the Congress Centre and Media Centre, cause everyone has to take out their electronic items for separate scanning. The security team were very kind about my odd questions, and what became clear was almost everyone going in and out of the media centre had laptops, but the majority of the delegates going into the Congress Centre eschewed laptops in favor of the more mobile tablets and smartphones of varying kinds. I found I needed my laptop cause I was always writing my pieces, but as soon as I came home I ordered a new one cause the battery life on my current machine left me desperate several times.
• One of the hottest topics at Davos (pun intended) was climate change. In this video I asked some experts in the field what they saw to be the impact of climate change on business and capital markets, society, government policy, and culture. I thought their answers were fascinating. Judging from the number of retweets on Twitter and shares here on LinkedIn, this proved to be one of the most popular videos I made in Davos.
• I had the chance to chat with my long time friend Jonathan Zittrain, professor of law and computer science at the Berkman Center, Harvard University. We talked about the challenges businesses are facing in understanding the implications of digital on the way they work today and tomorrow. That was interesting, but my take away was something larger that I’ve written about in the past, which is about being comfortable with not knowing everything in a fast moving, area. A lesson that is beyond just the digital sphere. 
• This year I came up with the idea of a bingo card for the WEF Annual Meeting, and it proved to be a hit among those attending and those watching from afar alike. Davos can be a jumble of words and ideas. Some are particular to Davos, like Belvédère – one of the central hotels where people hold fringe events and meetings, or Schatzalp - the hotel that you need to take a special funicular to reach. There’s also the way that private meetings between attendees are referred to as “bilats”, or the way some words are designed to encompass everything and nothing, like multistakeholder and geosecurity. Then there are words and ideas that emerge each year that are worthwhile and get people talking and thinking like this year’s emerging star topic LGBT, which I talked about above. Take a look and see if you found enough to win.
• There were a number of other vox pops that I did while I was in Davos, and I’ve been sharing those here on LinkedIn and on my Facebook page and on Twitter. So far I’ve posted an insightful and pithy comment by Helen Clark, Administrator of the UNDP and former Prime Minster of New Zealand, a comment from the CEO and Chairman of Hitachi, Hiroaki Nakanishi, who was also the co-chair of this year's World Economic Forum meeting, about what he wants the WEF to tackle next year, and an inspiring remark from Steve Howard of Ikea about purposeful businesses, and there are more to come. One side note: Helen and I both love social media and had a chance to compare notes. She uses Instagram really well and her photos are terrific, and she has inspired me to do more there as well. 

I’d welcome your thoughts. Please share them below, tweet them to me at @lucymarcus or come chat via my Facebook page.

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