What I learned and felt at Davos

It’s no secret that I am the kind of person to use the word “Futurism” un-ironically, and so when I had an opportunity to go to Davos, I jumped at the chance. My friend Gabo Arora is a virtual reality film-maker for the United Nations. He launched a new film at the World Economic Forum last week, and invited me to participate in an event with VR hardware maker HTC. Even though I was there, I was decidedly an outsider. Here were my top impressions:

Flows From West to East

China was in. Trump (US) and Merkel (Germany) were out, with France and Italy leadership also not having a meaningful presence at the event. People felt like there was a shift in the balance of power and global responsibility. Part of this was marketing message – with populist uprisings across the world, politicians want to avoid the impression of elitism. But there is something more. I spoke with a partner from a political consultancy who suggested that these moves reflect trade desires. Whereas the US and much of the West is swinging to protectionism (after benefiting from free trade post WW2, rebuilding Europe), China is becoming the de facto defender of free trade because of the benefits it receives. Another data point was at the HSBC exhibit, which used a virtual reality installation to show the ambitious Chinese Belt and Road initiative – an economic, trade and infrastructure project to deeper connect China to Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Outside of Davos, I also see certain Fintech innovations happen in Asia that are simply blocked in the Western world, from the integrated tech/finance offering of Alibaba and its massively growing online financial products, to encouraging much more disruptive outcomes in blockchain and cryptocurrency.

Inequality

The press coverage of Davos was pretty brutal, pointing to a disconnect between the people making decisions and those living the consequences. The absence of many political leaders in fear of populist reprisal only strengthens the point. We were at an amazing event in the World Food Programme tent, where leaders earnestly grappled with how to support struggling migrants and refugees. But though the walls were covered in photographs of starving kids, guinea fowl was served for dinner. It didn’t feel discordant at the time (how else should we feed millionaires?), but stuck with me.

Even at the conference, the social ladder was loudly present – there were (1) those attendees who could only see public tents, (2) those that could enter the hotel but not the sessions, (3) “white badges” that could enter sessions but took public transport to the meeting hall, (4) those that took private cars to the meeting hall, and then (5) those that flew in for a few hours to jet back same night after hitting their talking points. 

But even in this context, many of the attendees were frustrated over the social and economic systems, wanting to reform them. A panel on the refugee crisis showed people’s better nature – speakers from Canada, the US, the Netherlands, Denmark and the UK all found ways to help refugees by humanizing them, engaging communities, creating jobs and focusing on inclusion. My view on this trend is that financial services leaders have an obligation to the unbanked and underbanked (or they will be pitchforked), that technology is creating this democratizing effect without adding marginal costs, and in the end will likely supplant the traditional models entirely.

Storytelling with Feelings, not Numbers

At a Facebook event, the moderator shared that in previous years the company focused on technology demos, and this year, the focus was impact on the human beings using that technology. Panelists at other events spoke about the media narrative, and how to impact change, the language must shift from abstractions and statistics, to real interest stories, following the impact displacement, war, unemployment has on human beings. The CEO of Chobani told anecdotes how his foundation was reframing the stories of “refugees” or “immigrants” into those of “entrepreneurs”, going from job destroyers to job creators.

Perhaps this is the usual bend for WEF, but I was struck by how much emphasis was placed on storytelling and its medium. Virtual reality was everywhere – used by banks like HSBC, tech companies like Facebook, and social impact organizations like the UN. A key announcement from hardware maker HTC committed $10 million to funding social impact VR projects. This raises the question of how we tell stories to our clients, and whether the technology and tools we use to do so will evolve. How do we have a personal, emotional connection with many more human beings than ever before? Paper and text cannot be enough.

Davos was a unique experience and I am glad that it exists. We should appreciate the aspiration behind it. Maybe next time I’ll get a badge :)

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