This was my first year at the Digital Life Design Conference in Munich and the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland. The back-to-back events were well in sync as the theme for the Digital Life event was “What are you adding?” and for the Davos gathering, “Stakeholders for a Cohesive and Sustainable World.” Not only were the themes largely connected, but I was off to both conferences with an assignment to “do good things,” given to me by my wife on the way out the door. The design conference in Germany was about the digital world we live in and challenges in the digital transformation of society, along with environmental issues such as climate change and loss of biodiversity — with a splash of a water discussion from J. Carl Ganter (founder of Circle of Blue which reports on global water issues). The attendees and presentations were diverse and inspiring (in particular, from social entrepreneur Muhammad Yunus, economist Jeremy R. Rifkin, inventor Bill Gross and digital inclusion and policy expert Clara Barnett). I left the conference with a deeper appreciation of the social dimensions such as the workforce capacity for adopting digital technologies or ethical issues with artificial intelligence and the process of innovation. To view the full article visit Green Biz.
