In a guest post, Tessy Antony – de Nassau writes about her time and experience at the 2020 World Economic Forum:
In Davos town centre, the weather could have not been better; the sun was shining, blue skies, and deliciously crispy air breezing into my face as I was on my way to pick up my hotel pass for this year’s DAVOS 2020 gathering on the top of the Swiss mountains.
I have attended Davos every year for years and must say that this year was truly inspirational. I arrived on Monday afternoon with a full schedule of meetings and panel conversations to attend. There is an app called Davos X I downloaded in order to review all the different side events I had not yet explored or had not been invited to yet. There are around 500 side events within the four-day timeframe of the gathering. There are truly not enough hours in a day to attend all of them, sadly.
This year, as every year, I focused my time and commitments to the topics of education and impact within the domains of the Sustainable Development Goals, also known as SDG’s, and climate change.
Something was different this year. It felt like that businesses and institutions have finally accepted the fact that the only way forward to help our communities, societies and the environment is to work together under the umbrella of the Sustainable Development Goals. The conversations were thought-provoking and guiding.
My definite favourite, as every year, is the Swedish lunch which is on the top of the Schatzalp [Hotel Schatzalp Davos Switzerland]. My dear friends Marcus and Alex organise it every year with no political agenda in mind. Their aim is to bring global leaders, business leaders and institutional leaders together and not define the gathering by a specific theme. The aim is connection, communication and collaboration. I help them out every year by conducting the VIP and speaker interviews.
Another one of my favourite gatherings this year was the equality lounge where I met the most incredible human beings involved in reducing inequalities, reducing gender biases and championing male and female pioneers.
Now it is time to put all these conversations into actions for all and everyone who attended. There is no time to be lost; our environment and communities around the world need for all of us to collaborate, communicate and connect.
