Celebrating the WEF 50th anniversary with 50 bytes from Davos 2020

I am transparently stealing Ben Pring`s format, with my own 50 diverse takeaways. Some are my own big picture opinions from spending two intense full days in Davos and participating in two side events. Others are takeaways from the diverse speakers that I had the privilege to listen to. And some are my Tech innovation picks again from the events I participated in.

1. Great Greta Thunberg joined the status quo and is now confronted with all the difficulties that grown-up celebrities face. I am not supportive of this at all. I suggest `Leave the kid alone`, she has done enough already.

2. The “Davos Manifesto” is clear and in alignment with Great Greta`s message. Businesses will continue to be the way we create wealth (of all kinds) but now all adults can role up their sleeves and look at ways to maximize Stakeholder value.

3. Let’s pass on the torch that Great held, to adult activists. I am taking a stance on these issues that touches upon the psychological well-being of kid activists. 

(Click on the image to view the video)

4. The WEF was originally known as the European Management Forum and only 16 years later when it expanded its scope, was it renamed to WEF. Watch the WEF roadmap here. 

5. Even Davos was supportive of Greta. There was less snow and it was too warm. However, that did not reduce the number of men & women wearing light color fur coats and (women) bright color heavy makeup and hanging out on the sidewalks of the Promenade.

6. Pop-up stores, as “corporate showrooms” on the Promenade are growing. 

7. Last year there were two Tesla`s showcased outside the Morozani hotel. Honestly, I expected to hop on a driverless car this year, but I was disappointed.  

8. Female dominated panels were all the rage. We were even got offered a special `Women in Fintech`trophy at TechParkDavos (amazing event).

9. Background and geographic diversity in panels were also rising.  

10. For the first time, the balance of the agendas of the ever-growing Davos side events was greatly tilted towards Sustainability rather than Blockchain.  

11. During the two days in Davos, I did not hear 4IR once. The dominating themes were around the ethical regulation of the technologies. 

12. WEF Davos is becoming more about social issues rather than businesses, which gives us hope for explicit and intentional innovation on the Societal front. 

13. Surprise on the Promenade: A “cannabis-tech” expo for the first time. No comment.

14. Ben Pring says that `Wellness” advisors from Beverly Hills have started showing up in Davos. I did not see them. However, the Blockbase Davos space was really well attended. Linking spirituality, arts and technology. Worth visiting.

15. WEF Davos was echoing with links between Ecology, Economy and Consciousness.

16. Goldman Sachs`s announcement to no longer take any company public unless there is at least one diverse board member was very in vogue with the Davos narrative. Maybe they will be the ones taking Ripple to IPO (an unexpected hint during Davos) as their board is really diverse. 

Artificial Intelligence

17. AI will have huge applications in the real economy. We humans will be training lots of micro-robots to perform tasks (micro-robot training).

18. AI will have huge applications in optimizing transportation.

19. Only 20% of large corporations have made a difference by using AI.

20. 54 million people are wasting their time with jobs that AI data management can do better.

21. "AI is going to become more and more accessible to everyone. It is not going to be only for the privileged neither controlled by the big companies." says Jürgen Schmidhuber

22. `X+AI will be the norm` says Ben Pring

23. `Self-improving AI will change everything`says Jurgen Schmidhuber, founder of Nnaisense. 

24. "#AI is like babies - they need lots of #Data, lots of #Information. They need their parents teaching them. AI needs us, humans" says Jurgen Schmidhuber

25. Did we ask for this?: AI & IOT can help moms monitor whether their kids brush correctly their teeth 

26. Did we ask for this?: AI & IOT can help men & women apply moisturizer exactly on the areas that need it.

DATA 

27. The old adage `Location, location, location` is now transformed into `Availability, availability, availability` which means the power is in the accessibility and data. 

28. $4 trillion USD is spent by corporates every year to prepare data to be used by AI algos. 

29. Global Data Excellence is a global leader in Data excellence management that maximizes business value with a clear focus on the social value mission. 

30. Trigyan offers an innovative data platform that is domain neutral to link data at scale and real-time – Glide (Graphically Linked Integrated)

Platforms are the only Sustainable business model (a pick of the ones I met in Davos during the WEF)

31. Capital Markets: LoanBoox is a Swiss debt capital market platform digitizing capital markets for the municipality sector and eyeing much more. 

32. Banking: Mt. Pelerin is a blockchain powered core banking operating system. No fractional reserve banking, rather a marketplace approach to digital assets.

33. Digital ecosystem: The 1 billion retired people are a virtual continent that needs to be serviced accordingly. Dmitry Kaminskiy is the coauthor of the upcoming book Longevity Industry and covered tech in this the longevity space.

34. Digital ecosystem: YesWeTrust is a Swiss based unique ecosystem growing a community around health, sustainable investing, and a marketplace for sustainable consumption.  

35. Digital ecosystem: Beyond Animal is another Swiss based unique ecosystem focused on the sustainable economy. A networking platform, a crowdfunding platform for sustainability business, and a AI powered supply chain assistant. 

36. Digital ecosystem: Graypes is another Swiss AI powered ecosystem that evaluates business ideas. Funds them and offers a network to grow them. 

37. Sovereignty: Liberland is a micronation powered by blockchain and other technologies that setup a rep office in Zug after the WEF.

 38. Ria Persad spoke at TechParkDavos: She is the founder of Statweather, a 10yr old award-winning company providing state of the art weather prediction systems and risk mgt.  She bootstrapped the company with stay home moms working part-time! 

39. NASA and Diversity: The NASA Artemis program, will send the first woman and next man on the Moon by 2024, using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before. Cindy Chen spoke at Diversity in Blockchain about Artemis and the new female spacesuits. 

40. Data scientists: NASA Datanauts is a community for data newcomers, introducing and advancing data science skills, and creating a vibrant data problem-solving community.

41. Edge technologies: Marco Tempest showed us a VR live application that combines science and illusion. A kind of camera that as you speak on stage, autonomously projects you in a VR enhanced way (a real-time transformation to a magical virtual world). 

42. The transformation via AI is leading the world from Automation to Autonomous; said Nicolai Waldstrom, CEO & Founder, VC BootstrapLabs

43. Evan Luthra, is a truly native entrepreneur and angel investor, who has founded the iyoko.io ecosystem supporting people and innovative ventures.  

Davos Events I attended or were on my list but never made it: 

44. Follow SwissCognitive - The Global AI Hub, the host of the TechParkDavos, and Yusuf Berkan Altun, the organiser of TechPark Conference Davos 2020. 

45. Follow https://www.diversityinblockchain.ch/, and their sponsor BloomBloc who is focused on a sustainable supply chain for agriculture.

46. Follow the World Innovation Economics events; a platform for sharing ideas, discussing and exploring ways to resolve real-world challenges using Innovations. 

47. The Digital Economist hosted the book launch of Bridgital Nation: Solving Technology's People Problem co-authored by Natarajan Chandrasekaran and Roopa Purushothaman (Tata). A dream application of AI in India. 

48. The Digital Economist roundtable with MIT Professor Alex 'Sandy' Pentland focused on co-creating solutions to driving technological convergence into the new digital economy. Using the SDG framework to improve the state of the world through social entrepreneurship. 

49. The Prosperity Collaborative presented insights around building an efficient and fair taxation system by harnessing innovative technologies, hosted by GBBC. Alex `Sandy' Pentland and John Werner and Tomicah Tillemann were involved.

50. The Planetary Supernodes annual gathering (an invitation only event) took place at Blockbase Davos. The mission is to energize and activate thriving projects of planetary impact that engender a sustainable future. 

— This article originally appeared on Daily Fintech. 

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