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Approaching Economic Forum
WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM ANNUAL MEETING DAVOS 2008: WORLD LEADERS CONSIDER “THE POWER OF COLLABORATIVE INNOVATION”
Geneva, Switzerland – The World Economic Forum today unveiled the programme for its Annual Meeting in Davos, including the key participants, themes and goals. The overarching theme of the meeting, which will take place from 23 to 27 January, is “The Power of Collaborative Innovation”.
Over the course of the five-day meeting, more than 2,500 participants from 88 countries will convene in Davos, Switzerland, including 27 heads of state or government, 113 cabinet ministers, along with religious leaders, media leaders and heads of non-governmental organizations. Around 60% of the participants are business leaders drawn principally from the Forum's members – 1,000 of the foremost companies from around the world and across all economic sectors.
Speaking at a press conference at the World Economic Forum’s headquarters in Geneva, Founder and Executive Chairman Professor Klaus Schwab said: “The unique combination of the world's top business and political leaders, together with the heads of the world's most important NGOs, and religious, cultural and media leaders allows us to approach the problems that face the world in a systematic way and with an eye to tackling the major issues that face us all. The Annual Meeting gives all of us a chance to understand and shape the Global Agenda for the year ahead and beyond, serving global society by making sense of a rapidly changing world and harnessing collaborative innovation to the benefit of us all."
The meeting’s programme will follow five conceptual pillars that are high on the global agenda in 2008. These range from “Economics and Finance: Addressing Economic Insecurity” to “Business: Competing while Collaborating” and from “Geopolitics: Aligning Interests across Divides” to “Science and Technology: Exploring Nature’s New Frontiers” as well as “Values and Society: Understanding Future Shifts”. The opening session of the Annual Meeting will address two of the key issues facing the world, climate change and terrorism and will also be addressed by the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice.
Participants will also contribute to a special series of workshops, the Davos WorkSpace, included this year in the 235 official sessions. Additionally, there will be a Davos Brainstorming on the opening day, where participants will work together to identify the most pressing threat to growth and prioritize a plan of action. Also this year, in partnership with YouTube, the World Economic Forum has launched The Davos Question (http://www.youtube.com/thedavosquestion), with the aim of creating a global video conversation. Already, nearly one million viewers have taken part in the experiment with video contributions from CEOs, politicians and the wider public answering the question: “What key action do you think countries, companies or individuals should take to make the world a better place in 2008?"
All participants of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2008 can watch the responses to The Davos Question and are encouraged to reply directly to questions from the wider public in the first YouTube video booth set up for this purpose in the Congress Centre in Davos. Some of the best contributions will be used in key sessions in the programme.
Of the top 100 companies identified by the Financial Times, Fortune and Forbes, 74 will be represented at the Annual Meeting, with more than 1,370 executives at the level of CEO or chairman taking part this year.
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