This week I exchanged the maze of academia for an entirely different maze – I spent most of the week at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin, China.
World Economic Forum meetings are usually rather grand, complex, intimidating, stimulating and serendipitous affairs, and this was no exception. Built around the theme of “driving growth through sustainability” (a subtly clever theme I thought), it brought together business, government and community leaders from around the world (together with a smattering of academics and others) to discuss and explore sustainable solutions to emerging challenges.
In the words of the supporting material,
“Sustainability requires committing to a new mindset – one that is determined to challenge long-held economic assumptions, rethink business models and explore scientific and technological solutions to foster innovation and creativity within organizations. As the global population moves from 6 billion to 9 billion, it is also a mindset that defines sustainability in the broadest terms, beyond its ecological impact, to develop a more holistic, systemic and integrated approach to leadership. Therefore, driving growth through sustainability is fundamental for global, national and business competitiveness in the 21st century.”
There was a lot of food for thought generated at the meeting, which is going to take some time to digest. And as this is my weekly roundup, I’m going to resist the temptation to engage in deep analysis at this stage. But in winding down as I travel back to Michigan, I did want to capture some of the more trivial highs (and lows) of the week here.
At one of the earlier sessions I attended, a rather bright researcher from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) talked about an innovative new product he is developing in his lab – History Glasses. The glasses have an embedded camera and a single electrode that rests on the relevant part of the head when you wear them. Whenever the wearer experiences a “wow” moment (in the words of the inventor), the camera takes a picture of whatever they are looking at – so you end up with a record of all those moments in your day/week/year that involuntarily capture your attention.
Being rather enamored by this idea, I thought I would use this week’s Lost in the Maize as my virtual “History Camera” of the Tianjin meetings – capturing some of those “wow” moments from the week. Be warned though – just as the history camera doesn’t necessarily capture what you might expect, these are a rather eclectic collection of experiences!
Night driving between Beijing and Tianjin. Being driven in a coach between Beijing airport and Tianjin en the evening, I came away with the impression that there is just one rule for night driving in China – don’t hit anyone if you can avoid it.
Augmented reality – who needs it? A panel of four speakers tried to convince the audience that augmented reality is the next big thing. (For the uninitiated, this is where a real-time image of reality captured on a cell phone, for instance, is overlaid with information, animations, or just about anything else). There certainly seems to be a growing demand for it. But the question was left unanswered – will it make us any happier?
Water food and energy. In standing with the meeting’s theme, there was a heavy emphasis here on addressing the looming water, energy and food crises that global society will face over the next few decades. What was surprising to a number of people – including myself – was how high up people’s agenda water was.
‘We’ll run out of water before we run out of oil” This from Peter Braebeck-Letmathe, Chairman of the Board for Nestlé
People – everywhere! The number of volunteers and others helping out at the meeting was truly impressive – everywhere you went, there was someone at your elbow offering aid. This got a bit much though when bathroom attendants insisted in helping you wash your hands!
Nanosilver bug-killers. Who would have thought I would learn something new about nanotech at a WEF meeting! Some provocative micrographs were presented of nanoscale silver particles disrupting the outer membranes of bacteria – but because the work hasn’t been published yet I can’t say much more than this at the moment, apart from stay tuned…
More people! At a cultural event hosted by the City of Tianjin we were greeted by what must have been a corridor of at least two hundred perfectly turned out attendants – alternating men and women dressed in traditional costume. Walking down the line was simultaneously impressive and humbling.
Serendipitous taxi-sharing. This is a WEF tradition. Heading back from the cultural event I bumped into the person responsible for the Young Scientist program at WEF (an initiative by UNESCO to get young scientists involved in the World Economic Forum) and had a great conversation about raising the profile of science and scientists within the organization.
Smart scientists. On the subject of scientists, I was impressed by the Ideas Lab with Young Scientists attending the meeting. Each had 5 minutes/15 slides (timed) to introduce their work to a lay audience, followed by breakout discussions on significant challenges and opportunities they were facing. This is a great format for engaging people in science, and one that I really need to explore further.
Awareness based collective action. In a session chaired by Tom Friedman, C. Otto Sharmer (MIT) introduced this great concept to aid the development of innovation in a technologically and socially complex world.
Tom Friedman’s column. …and while Otto was talking, Tom was furiously scribbling. After a pause, he noted he was just writing a column – raising a round of applause from the audience. (If he does write about Otto’s ideas, it’ll be a piece worth looking out for).
Arts meet science. Another serendipitous taxi ride – this time with an arts curator/promoter from India. We quickly realized that the challenges and opportunities she faces in engaging people in the arts are remarkably similar to those faced by science engagement – and that there’s tremendous scope for the two worlds to come together in innovative new ways.
Day driving between Tianjin and Beijing. On the way back to the airport I had the chance to observe the Tianjin traffic in daylight, and the only word I can think of to describe the functioning confusion of cars, trucks, bikes, carts and trolleys is “organic”. I suspect the day-time driving rule is “don’t get closer than 2 inches to other road users – if you can avoid it”.
Beijing airport. Impressive. If I was wearing my history glasses, I’d have some photos!
The inventor of the History Camera is already talking to a couple of manufacturers, so that’s something to look out for. The only potential problem is that, in early trials with students, users ended up with endless pictures of handbags (if they were girls) or women’s legs (if they were boys). Leaving the question – is this the sort of history consumers are really going to want to remember?
I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
No related posts.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
“There certainly seems to be a growing demand for it. But the question was left unanswered – will it make us any happier?”
lol… i didn’t think we were still looking for that old dog “happiness”.
Happiness is a personal search, technology is about controlling processes. Augmented reality is made for an aggressive society.
Regarding this comment about water:
” What was surprising to a number of people – including myself – was how high up people’s agenda water was.”
You need a trip out to the western US! Actually, I see via Wikipedia that Tianjin is on China’s Grand Canal. Too late to check it out, I guess.