Jen's Journal

The magnitude of ideas, high-level interactions, intellectual stimulation and scope of opportunities generated in less than a week at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland is more than what some may encounter in a lifetime. It was a great privilege for me to be able to participate this year and be part of the dynamic exchange where I attended private sessions to hear from leaders such as Bill Gates and President Bill Clinton while also having a chance to shake hands with Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, my favourite author Paulo Cohelo and one of my role models, Nobel Peace Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank.



A series of back-to-back 18 hour days with at least a dozen compelling sessions and meetings to choose from in any given time slot and knowing that conversations with any participant will lead to new perspectives on the world can leave any person with big hopes for the future in a state of awe. Having been to Davos before, I set out to be better prepared this time, with a daily dose of vitamins, morning and evening stretches, carefully planned outfits and stacks of business cards in hand. It is easy to feel lost in the midst of such high-powered leaders of countries and multi-national corporations with delegations of support staff on site. In my case, I felt rooted as part of the Young Global Leaders (YGL) community, with a clear mission this time around; bringing youth voices to the forefront of the global agenda.

The adventure started with a lost bag. After arriving in Zurich, I watched the baggage carousel grind to a halt and my bags were nowhere to be found. I knew I couldn’t attend meetings with my track suit, so I spent time before the shuttle whisked me away to the mountain town of Klosters on a shopping spree funded by my baggage delay insurance!
Our first day in Davos was a private program specially designed for the Young Global Leaders.



Since learning about the Global Redesign Initiative at the Young Global Leaders (YGL) Annual Meeting in Jordan that took place in May 2009, I have been working tirelessly alongside a team of TaskForce members of 30 other YGLs in order to reach out and engage the voices of youth in the process. We ran over 30 Town Hall meetings in 20 countries and conducted online consultations, involving over 2000 youth. Key recommendations in each of the six areas of the Global Redesign were highlighted in a report launched just in time for Davos!

Report Link: http://store.tigweb.org/files/YGLYouthReport.pdf

Press Release announcing official launch: http://www.weforum.org/pdf/YGL/YGLredesign.pdf

As the lead for Education and Youth cluster initiatives led by the YGLs, I helped to facilitate a series of pitch presentations for the Youth Task Force along with other initiatives including Learn Money, Global Curriculum on Conflict Management and the Missing Middle. Each initiative had about five minutes to present their idea and key accomplishments to date, followed by feedback and questions with a group of Young Global Leaders. Insightful ideas and recommendations were provided by the group!



We then had more time for in-depth working group meetings in order to discuss our ‘One Wish’ for Davos. For the Youth Task Force, we talked about the importance of ensuring that our final report was not only strategically distributed, but also reviewed and responded to. After brainstorm the various ways that we might capture the interest of leaders from various Global Agenda Councils, we decided that the best way to generate both interest and response would be to conduct short video interviews. After reporting back to the rest of the YGLs on the idea, my entire agenda for the week became re-focused towards this task. The very first video was with TakingITGlobal Advisor Don Tapscott, author of Growing Up Digital and a member of the Global Agenda Council on the Future of Government.



My aim was to capture responses from as many Global Agenda Councils as possible, while also inspiring an interest among institutions to meaningfully work with youth. Various YGLs pitched in to help facilitate introductions with Global Agenda Councils and Peter Bisanz from Entropy Films donated 30mins of time from his film crew in order to allow me to schedule interviews with high-profile individuals with high-quality footage. I’m pleased to say that from Davos alone, 14 videos have been posted online, representing 9 Global Agenda Councils.

To check them out, go to: http://taskforce.tigweb.org/ygl_youth/wiki/?wiki=1443

The darker side to the story is that I actually captured 5 more video clips and on my way from one place to another, I misplaced the camera and it was lost but never found. After spending an entire day running around and scheduling interviews, you can imagine my disappointment when it was not returned and when I had to reschedule further interviews. Thankfully I actually had two small cameras on hand, one Kodak and one Cannon…so while I almost felt like giving up, I was able to continue on with other scheduled interviews after having picking myself back up from the loss. I am following up with people to try and re-capture video footage, but it requires a lot more of a time commitment.

As they say, it is best to stay positive and when you have setbacks, it is important to keep moving forward and so this was an important and difficult lesson for me. The other lesson was to avoid rushing, as you could misplace something important and rushing may mean that you have to re-do your work, taking more time at the end of it all.

On a more uplifting note, there was a special moment that was both uplifting and also funny. A private event with Former US President Bill Clinton was organized and a group of 150 Young Global Leaders were waiting for over 40 minutes with anxiety in the room starting to build given everyone’s busy schedules. There was a moment that I felt compelled to do a cheer with the room. I didn’t think very long or hard about the idea – I just felt like I had to do the cheer. I asked two of my fellow YGLs what they thought about me doing a cheer, and they said ‘sure, why not’…moments later I was up on stage with the microphone and inviting the entire room to stand up and join me in my cheer! If you’ve been with me before and seen it, the cheer is the one I wrote back when I was 18 and it is sometimes what I like to invite people to join me in singing a long…the words (repeat after me):

I have a dream
That all the world could join and see
I wish they saw the sky
I wish they knew that they could fly

We have the power
To change the world this very hour
Let’s join as one
We are one world under the sun



Can you imagine a room filled with high-powered business executives, political leaders, journalists and others in suits standing up and joining in an unexpected cheer?! I can tell you that most people had shocked looks on their faces, combined with smiles. It was unexpected, spontaneous, fun and most of all, it got people laughing and easing up the tension from all that waiting.
My other moment on stage was when I gave an IdeasLab presentation following the pecha kucha format of 15 slides with 20 seconds per slide. My focus was to present the findings of the Youth Task Force town hall meetings and online consultations. It was a special experience for me because one of our TIG Advisors Kim Samuel-Johnson was in the room to show her support of our work.

Here’s the presentation!



You can imagine my delight when the presentation generated high-levels of enthusiasm from several senior leaders including the Director General for Health and Consumers at the European Commission and the Secretary-General of the International Organization for Standardization among others. Our break-out group discussion was facilitated by François-Philippe Champagne, another Young Global Leader who has recently joined TakingITGlobal’s Board of Directors. One of the key ideas discussed in the group, was the need for international organizations to reserve a position for youth on their board of directors as well as to establish youth advisory councils.



One of the other sessions where I was able to share insights on working with youth was in my role as a Discussion Leader for a lunch session titled ‘Lessons from the Next Generation’. I shared a few opening remarks along with other discussion leaders moderated by Nancy Lublin from Do Something and then we had a chance to chat with participants at our table about youth trends. The theme of social networks and the impact on how youth learn, work and communicate was the topic in focus. Most people shared their concerns about their own children and how to provide the appropriate guidance when it comes to their online profiles and involvements. Some parents seem to enjoy using social networks like facebook to keep in touch with their kids while others feel out of touch. One mother said that her daughter does not want a facebook account as she is afraid of potential consequences. I shared my suggestions on the importance of having open communication across generations. I talked about how my mom is one of friends on facebook and how we’ve had active family discussions about what is appropriate or inappropriate to discuss with our online networks. I also emphasized how important it is for kids to grow up having opportunities to develop awareness and critical thinking skills at an early age. Once the exposure hits, it is important to be able to make healthy choices.

I am starting to see my role as a bit of an intergenerational bridge and one thing I was really inspired by was the participation of youth under 25 who are part of the Global Changemakers program. There were six youth participants who joined us in Davos and took an active role in asking questions, articulating opinions and sharing experiences with the established leaders of the world. What was most impressive to me was when Bill Gates was referring to a question asked by one of the youth in an earlier plenary session. You know you’ve had an impact when you ask an unforgettable question – especially to a smart person who will hopefully reflect and act upon it.

Another way that I have been working to support the initiatives of the Young Global Leaders is in my capacity as the Cluster Lead for Education and Youth as part of our YGL Global Redesign Steering Committee. We have weekly calls chaired by HRH Crown Prince Haakon of Norway where we share updates and discuss strategies on how to engage the community, foster connections and strengthen initiatives. Here’s a team photo of our group!



Beyond my role in promoting youth voices and directly engaging leaders in trying to secure greater commitments to working with youth, I also found the content of the sessions to be fascinating. Since I had very little time to sit through sessions with my schedule, I took copies of session summaries and have been reading through them over the past week to try and pull out interesting statistics and comments that are relevant to my interests and concerns.

Here are a few highlights of points that stood out to me in no particular order (taken from summaries provided by the World Economic Forum):
- The latest research in the field of developmental psychology suggests that young children, roughly from the ages of 18 months to five years, spend their time in worlds of their own creation and any average three-year old possesses greater powers of pure imagination than the most fertile adult mind in an artist colony.
- Problem solving and “learnability” are the two most relevant skills for the future.
- One of the key characteristics of the human mind is its ability to see “invisible” links and interpret data. Intelligence is also collective, as seen in armies, families and corporations.
- Although unemployment rates continue to rise, there are still 2.6 million jobs unfilled in the US and 4 million in Europe because of a shortage of skilled workers.
- Over 90% of consumers say they would buy sustainable products.
- Buildings represent 40% of energy use and 70% of carbon emissions in urban environments.
- When it comes to design, the cycle of inputs and outputs needs to be fully considered in order to design for sustainability and achieve positive goals, avoiding reducing negative effects.
- At a consumption rate of about 86 million barrels a day, oil is responsible for 40% of the world’s CO2 emissions. The transportation sector, in particular, needs to reduce reliance on oil.
- The risk of global pandemics is likely to grow in the coming years, due largely to globalization, urbanization and innovations in biotechnology.
- Global defense spending is estimated to have reached US $ 1.464 trillion in 2008 which represents a 45% increase over the last 10 years.
- Asia accounted for 75% of global growth last year and forecasts suggest that it will lead the global recovery in 2010.
- Students are calling for a more behavioural approach when it comes to understanding economic complexities. There is a shift emerging in economic schools of thought.
- Social networks and blogs are now ahead of personal e-mail in terms of online activities and account for almost 10% of time spent on the internet.
- The new consumer is predominantly female – women make 85% of all purchases.
- Art and culture can play an important role in stimulating or reviving identity. Break-dancing, for example, is one way of empowering youth to combat criminality by making better use of public spaces and by providing a means of expression.
- The UN estimates that by 2050 world population will increase from 6.8 billion today to 9.2 billion.
- About 3 billion people are living on less than US $2 a day. If the world is to redesign its systems, it must also fundamentally reset its values and shape a global moral compass.
- Seventy-five percent of extreme poverty in the world occurs in rural areas.
- In thinking about how to reduce the probability of a future crisis, we must realize that we are perhaps “too interconnected to fail”

On the final evening, an informal dinner was organized for Young Global Leaders. It was nice to be able to relax and have everyone together as a group at the end of the events. The evening kicked off with 2009 YGLs having a chance to introduce themselves and sing a song. This put us all in good spirits. Throughout the evening, we had an ‘open mic’ and different people stood up to share some of their reflections on their experiences as a YGL. Near the end of the evening, I had another one of those moments where I felt compelled to share something very special to me….the poem ‘How Does Change Happen?’ that I wrote at COP15. I shared it with the group and also mentioned that as a ‘birthday project’, I would like to have YGLs share their ‘theory of change’ so that I can prepare a short book in connection to the poem. I was really encouraged by the supportive response!



Finally, those of us in the inaugural YGL class of 2005 were invited to stand up and we all laughed together as we sang a song! We are the world…we are the children….



Oh – and of course – a week in Davos is not complete without a little cross-country skiing on a Sunday afternoon!