My Self-Assigned Role

January 22nd, 2010

World Economic Forum – Davos 2010

My blog for the WEF – Day 1, Part 2 .
My self-assigned role is to represent the technologist, entrepreneur and mobile money communities.

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffective, concerning all acts of initiative and creation…Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now” – Goethe

Klaus Schwab sent me a book and a note to provide more background on the World Economic Forum. He invited me to review the survey of the key issues which preoccupied humanity over the last 40 years. As I fly to the World Economic Forum, I read this review and think about what I look forward to and who I look forward to meeting in Davos. I am a technologist, entrepreneur, mobile money evangelist – and my self-assigned role is to represent those communities well as I engage with world leaders at the 2010 World Economic Forum (WEF).

This meeting marks the 40th year of the forum founded in 1971 as the European Management Forum, renamed in 1987 the World Economic Forum reflecting the Forum’s expanded scope. From its modest beginnings of bringing European corporate managers together to discuss business strategies, it is now the world’s foremost multi-stakeholder event addressing the most pressing global issues.

This Forum, with the realities of the after effects of the global economic crisis and the disaster in Haiti, will focus on rebuilding. For the economic crisis – the Global Redesign Initiative is a key platform of discussion – reviewing institutions and practices of global governance and corporate activity to better tackle the challenges of globalization. Although not a part of the original agenda, they have recently added Haiti relief and recovery to the key topics for this meeting.

I look forward to the many dialogues and want to understand how mobile financial services and technology can play a role in both the global economic recovery and the specific challenges of Haiti. This is already happening on a small scale – mobile money in Asia and Africa has already begun to provide banking to millions of underserved people. Also in Haiti, “mobile text giving” (text to a short code to donate $10 to the Red Cross for Haiti – charges show up on your phone bill) has helped ease mass-individual giving to the Red Cross in the US. How can regulators, governments, and corporations help these solutions quickly scale to increase their global impact? Awareness is key since many important stakeholders are still not aware of the full potential.

The Power of Convening.

When I retired in 2000, I moved to Aspen Colorado , home to the Aspen Institute. It is a convening organization which year round hosts events that bring together people from around the world to study and discuss world topics. I experienced first hand the power of convening. It fosters education about the most important issues, trends, and questions of our time. It fosters creation – since the people and relationships have indirect impacts since they were changed by the dialogue and the relationships that developed during their time at the Aspen Institute. These connections may not ever occur without this opportunity to come together in a safe open discussion. The fact is, without these types of forums these people would not normally be connecting – building relationships, crossing traditional boundaries, developing greater understanding.

I imagine Davos as the Aspen Institute on steroids. I looked at the attendee list – CEO’s of fortune 100 companies, senators, presidents, heads of central banks, heads of major foundations, nobel peace prize winners, great social entrepreneurs. I look forward to meeting many of these people in person.

Hello Mr/Ms. President – have you heard about the potential of Mobile Banking?

Here are a few of the Presidents/CEO’s that I hope to meet personally . As you can see from this list – this is a great networking opportunity but also intimidating even to a seasoned networker like me:

AT&T INC. Randall L. Stephenson
BARCLAYS PLC Robert E. Diamond Jr
BHARTI AIRTEL LIMITED Manoj Kohli
BHARTI ENTERPRISES Sunil Bharti Mittal
DEUTSCHE BANK AG Anshu Jain
FACEBOOK INC. Sheryl Sandberg
FACEBOOK INC. Mark Zuckerberg
GOLDMAN SACHS Peter D. Sutherland
ICICI BANK LTD Chanda Kochhar
JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. James Dimon

Anyone have any great ideas on how to break the ice with world leaders, please send me your thoughts. I have a WEF buddy who I meet with on day 1 of the event. Maybe he can make some suggestions. On my next blog I’ll talk more about my agenda and the session topics, also Joe Tumminaro’s (my husband, pictured below) thoughts about attending the Forum with me.