World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2016

25th January 2016 - 3160 days ago

From 20th to 23rd January, the annual WEF took place in Davos, Switzerland. The meeting provided an unparalleled platform for design, creation and collaboration for global leaders across all disciplines to advance multiple agendas. The theme this year focused on the global imperative of Mastering the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This revolution is distinct from previous ones in that it affects the transformation of entire systems of production, distribution and consumption as opposed to a product or industry.

The first Industrial Revolution used water and steam power to mechanise production. The Second used electric power to create mass production. The Third used electronics and information technology to automate production. Now this Fourth Industrial Revolution is upon us and is evolving at an exponential rather than a linear pace.

Moreover it is disrupting almost every industry in every country. The opportunity of billions of people to be connected by mobile devices, with hitherto unseen quantities of processing power, storage capacity and access to knowledge, are unlimited. This is truly shifting the power of the few to the power of the many and is without doubt the greatest disruptor we have ever witnessed.

The aim of the meeting was to create a new type of international organisation that acts as a bridge builder and serves as a strategic platform for the world around it. Attending were truly global leaders who have the power to make change, achieve mutual understanding and, where appropriate, push action forward. Leaders and thinkers such as Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Erik Brynjolfsson, who focus on the IT element of this revolution, along with Hans Rosling who researches the benefits of sharing data to improve health outcomes, have all been part of the WEF. Other visionaries have contributed to the proceedings such as Wolfgang Ischinger on the area of global security and Dambisa Moyo and Lord Nicholas Stern on the topic of global economic analysis.