Finance & Capital Market

Open Forum returns to Davos after two-year hiatus

This year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) Open Forum Davos will focus mainly on Covid-19 pandemic impact, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the role of multilateralism for peace in Europe.
 
Taking place for the first time since January 2020, the Open Forum, from May 23 to 26, offers a platform for debate and interaction on controversial issues between the public and scholars, business leaders and policy-makers around improving the state of the world.
 
Panellists include human rights activist and Nobel Peace Laureate Nadia Murad, Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko, climate activist Vanessa Nakate, Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel and many others.
 
Young and diverse voices 
Young and diverse voices will also play a prominent role in the discussions, with one session on youth mental health co-designed and moderated by students from Geneva, Switzerland. Each session will include at least one member of the Forum’s Global Shapers Community, a wide-ranging network of people under 30 from all walks of life and different parts of the world.
 
Discussion topics range from the climate crisis and youth mental health and the Metaverse.
 
Ignazio Cassis, President of the Swiss Confederation, among other high-level panellists, will be joined by Ievgeniia Bodnya, 27, who mobilised the Global Shaper Hub she leads in Kyiv to build the Support Ukraine Now, a crowdsourcing and sharing information platform for people to support Ukrainians affected by the war. In another session, Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko and his brother Wladimir, Chairman of the Klitschko Foundation, will talk about how the Russian invasion has affected them and their country.
 
Words into action
Also present at the Open Forum will be a group of climate activists, including 26-year-old Vanessa Nakate, author and climate advocate who addressed world leaders at the World Economic Forum 2020. The activists will articulate how to turn words into action to fight the climate crisis. Gender equality will also feature prominently in the conversations.
 
On the digital front, the last two years have seen the blending of in-person and virtual interactions. Peggy Johnson, Chief Executive Office of augmented reality company Magic Leap, will introduce the possibilities of the Metaverse and then join a panel of experts, including Pascal Kaufmann, President and Founder of the Mindfire Foundation, the brain behind Lab42, which is setting up shop in Davos in July and aims to become the largest AI lab in the world.
 
The Open Forum Davos, now in its 19th year, will be held at the Tobelmühle Sports Hall, Tobelmühlestrasse 4 e, Davos Platz, Switzerland.-- TradeArabia News Service