Conversation starters

An Armenian and a Ukrainian walk into a bar. It’s not the beginning of a bad joke but the start of a real conversation that I found myself part of at an outdoor table in Schumann’s Bar, Munich, at the end of last week. The event in question was Monocle’s annual Quality of Life Conference, which just celebrated its eighth anniversary and wrapped up over the weekend in the Bavarian capital.

The conversation with my new-found Ukrainian and Armenian friends was indicative of what makes these shindigs so good: their ability to bring people together from around the world. With attendees everywhere from Nigeria to Andorra, what’s always so great to watch is the energy created by people from different professions and backgrounds in the same room, exchanging business cards and making new plans to work together. The conferences often prove to be fertile breeding ground for new collaborations.

The Quality of Life events are, of course, also designed to get us to think about living better. At a fascinating panel on risk, for example, we were treated to a masterclass on how to rethink the world’s geopolitical crises, with a panel of experts comprising strategist Tina Fordham, Munich Security Conference vice-chairman and CEO Benedikt Franke and the Swiss Department of Defence’s Benno Zogg. A zoo-full of animal analogies were used to help explain what is happening around the world, from the canary in the midshaft to the elephant in the room. But it was Franke who said it best when he suggested that we need to start seeing fast-shifting geopolitical sands as “grey rhinos” – animals that you see and are prepared for before they charge – rather than “black swans” that take everyone by surprise.

With daily headlines often painting a depressing picture of what is happening around the planet, The Monocle Quality of Life Conference is always refreshing in its desire to seek out positive solutions. We’re not promising to wave a magic wand but we also know this is just the beginning of the conversation.

Ed Stocker is Monocle’s Europe editor at large. For more opinion, analysis and insight, subscribe to Monocle today.