Is Davos Becoming Irrelevant?

OK, that's a provocative statement.  We know that with many of the world's most powerful business and government leaders holding forth at the exclusive Davos gathering (officially, the World Economic Forum) held in Davos, Switzerland this week, important conversations will take place, relationships will be formed and furthered, and decisions will be made about directions to take on important issues.

But I wonder just how relevant much of Davos is.  I've been to two Davos gatherings in the past and they are heavy stuff, that's true.  You see movie stars, business tycoons, government leaders, all in one place and the very pecking order of private parties and side events that run concurrently with the official program make it clear that there is a hierarchy here and most of us aren't at the top of the heap.  (I read somewhere that Steve Case told someone once it's the kind of gathering that no matter what room you're in, you have the feeling the really important stuff is going on in some other room.  Ever been to a party like that?)

I've talked here about TED many times, and the privilege I feel in being able to attend every year's gathering of TEDsters, now in Long Beach, California.  It's a totally different atmosphere.  People dress differently, the topics are different, the people themselves are different.  It's casual; only rarely is someone seen in a suit and tie and that seems to last about five minutes before they shed the uniform.  The topics are about whatever is the hottest issue, the hottest invention, the hottest concern, of the moment.  And I mean the very moment we are there.  It's been noted, for example, that Tunisia is a word not heard yet by anyone at Davos this week.  The agenda was put together long ago and all those panel speakers were selected before the Middle East--especially Egypt--erupted.  Davos with its hard-wired agenda has a hard time adjusting to that kind of real time event.

Not so, TED.  Events going on in the "real world" are very much on people's lips, both on-stage and off.  The whole program is about as relevant as things get.  That's why so many people want to watch TED talks online  and will even inconvenience themselves to watch webcasts of TED talks in the middle of the night in some parts of the world.  Because they know whatever is being talked about is something they should know about. 

It's not just that TED is brain candy.  It is that at the end of the TED week, you feel you've got more than enough material to keep you thinking, wondering, adjusting your thinking, figuring how to learn more about subjects you'd not heard about before TED, for the rest of the year.

Now that's relevant.  I ask you: would you rather have a conversation about where interest rates are going (a Davos subject)...or how people are creating a tool that could provide water for all the people of the world at almost no cost (a typical TED talk)?  TED's tag line says it all: Ideas Worth Spreading.  Although the live TED that takes place in Long Beach only accommodates a couple of thousand people, the content created at TED is purposely put up on the web in order for people all over the world to experience and noodle over the topic for themselves.  It's the ultimate democratization of the TED talk.  I'm not so sure that even if Davos content were all made available on the web that there would be millions flocking to it.  It's not media rich, vital, exciting.

Far as I'm concerned, it's a no-brainer.  And besides that, the people at TED are more fun.

Comments

[alan p]

I was at TED 2009,and there were increasing mutterings over the week about the relentlessly upbeat agneda vs the major issue at the time,ie The Crunch. IIRC Chris Anderson got up on the last day to apologise.

[Speeding Offences]

Study is that all of the most pressing problem is the most popular invention, the hottest time of concern. I mean at the same time, we were there.