It’s off to network we go

Patrick Aebischer believes concrete steps have been taken at this year's WEF annual meeting swissinfo.ch

Despite a pervasive pessimism, this year's annual World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos has been valuable, two participants tell swissinfo.

Patrick Aebischer, president of the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, and Christophe Beck, vice-president of Ecolab, a US-based sanitation supply multinational, share their experiences and observations of the past week.

swissinfo: What will you remember from the WEF meeting this year?

Patrick Aebischer: Two things. First the general aspect of collaboration between the various sectors – academic as well as political and industrial – and how they nurture each other.

Then there’s the aspect more connected to my activity as president of the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. On Saturday I took part in a meeting of 25 presidents of the world’s largest universities in which we discussed various issues, such as development of the academic system in Africa and how we can continue to develop our own system of further education.

Christophe Beck: For a long time I’ve had the impression that participants water down the world’s problems, but coming here – this is the first time I’ve been to Davos – what has struck me the most is the capacity in most meetings, especially the private ones, to recognise and confront these problems. People are talking openly about climate change, poverty, inequality and financial problems.

Even more interesting is that most of them say we are not going to be able to solve these issues without changing our approach. One element that is emerging is the need for companies, governments and non-government organisations to work together and to turn the problems into business opportunities. We are progressively moving beyond the purely charitable approach.

Younger people today often think in terms of networks – with the internet and Wikipedia and YouTube etc – but for the generation here that’s still a bit of a novelty.

swissinfo: Will this meeting see any concrete results?

P.A.: The WEF has launched an online platform called WELCOM, which will enable us to interact more frequently.

Regarding universities, an undertaking has been made to build sustainable and energy-efficient campuses. I personally feel that concrete steps have been taken.

C.B.: Talking to people who by and large have done extraordinary things, for good or for bad, I have learnt things and been able to improvise my life and what I do. Moreover, here you meet in a few days more people than you could otherwise meet over several months. This element of networking is personally important, but it strengthens all the organisations.

swissinfo: Does the pessimistic atmosphere here worry you?

P.A.: I see two levels. The current crisis in the markets is certainly worrying, but the real problems – if I may put it like that – are more important: climate change, sustainable development and the development of countries which still need a lot of help.

Current affairs always play a role at Davos – we don’t want to deny that – but there is also a possibility to reflect on the decades to come. Regarding climate change for example we not going to come up with a solution here overnight, but it’s very important to be able to discuss the issue.

C.B. In my view the issue [of the financial crisis] is more critical than people are willing to admit. We have by and large recognised the problem, but people also have the tendency to say that the worst is over. I’m not convinced. We are experiencing the first wave of problems concerning liquidity.

Turning to companies’ credit schemes, when money was cheap many firms invested in marginally profitable projects. With money less available and more expensive, some of them are going to find themselves in a critical situation. These difficulties are still to come – in the United States and elsewhere. People should brace themselves for 12 or 18 relatively hard months.

swissinfo-interview: Pierre-François Besson in Davos

Key facts

The annual WEF meeting took place in Davos from January 23–27.
Those attending included 27 heads of state or government, 113 ministers, the heads of several international organisations, 1,370 business leaders and 340 representatives from civil society (religion, culture and NGOs).
Six of the seven Swiss cabinet members were also there. The exception is the newly elected Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf.
Decision makers discussed the economy, geopolitics, ecology, business, technology and society at this year’s event, which had as its theme “The power of collaborative innovation”.

World Economic Forum

The World Economic Forum is a foundation created by 1971 by Professor Klaus Schwab. The WEF was originally known as the European Management Forum.

It has its headquarters in Cologny, near Geneva, and has a staff of almost 300 people.

Its annual budget is more than SFr100 million ($90.88 million), financed in part by its 1,000 company members.

The WEF’s motto is “entrepreneurship in the global public interest”.

Forum events take place on almost every continent each year, and the annual meeting in Davos is the largest of these.