Davos Preview

The annual meeting of the World Economic Forum begins Jan. 25 in Davos, Switzerland, with an update on the global economy provided by a panel of economists including Jacob Frankel of AIG, Stephen Roach of Morgan Stanley, Laura D. Tyson, dean of the London Business School, and Min Zhu, the executive assistant president of the Bank of China. A highlight of the first day's meeting includes a special address by Pervez Musharraf, president of Pakistan.

Later in the meeting, former US President Bill Clinton will address the group in a conversation while another Bill, Bill Gates, will participate in the forum called “Global Plan to Stop TB.”

In the dot-com boom times, Davos was the annual meeting to describe the high tech agenda, at least for high-level ideas, and high-profile personalities. The meeting is still an important gathering but a lot less hyped.

The meeting, which lasts Jan. 25-29, lists more than 2,340 participants, including business and political leaders, gathering under the rubric of “The Creative Imperative” and holding discussions on:

human imagination, innovation and the creativity necessary to address the major challenges the world is facing” and five sub-themes: “The Emergence of China and India” and “The Changing Economic Landscape” to “New Mindsets and Changing Attitudes”, “Creating Future Jobs” and “Regional Identities and Struggles”.

New Biology Economy would love to cover this event but not this year. So, we offer the following links from the forum's website that, if we were there, we would cover:

A World Without Intellectual Property

Whether it is open source software, music exchange or unlicensed cloning of consumer and pharmaceutical products, the current regime for protecting intellectual property (IP) rights is under pressure. As product development cycles shorten and become more collaborative, companies need to rethink how they manage and protect IP. 1) How would innovation be rewarded in a world without adequate intellectual property protection? 2) How could companies potentially gain a competitive advantage by adopting new approaches to IP? 3) What new models might emerge in response to existing pressures on IP? Join with your peers in this collaborative workshop to look into the future, exploring the risk and opportunities for your organization in a world without IP rights.

India and the World: Scenario to 2025

Co-developed by the World Economic Forum and the Confederation of Indian Industry, the India and the World scenario explores potential futures for India and the internal and external forces shaping India's policy towards the rest of the world.

India's Life Science Revolution

India's rapid rise in IT-enabled services is a true success story. The life science industry is now a major focus for investment, with one million jobs expected to be created by 2010. 1) What factors bode well for the industry in light of India's previous success in IT? Has India sufficient research resources and the human capital to power a bioscience industry? 2) What models are Indian life science companies likely to adopt to compete internationally? 3) How might government regulation and patent issues impact the investment climate?

The Big Debate: Setting the Business Agenda Questions Demanding a Creative Response

This year's Annual Meeting theme, The Creative Imperative will explore the need for society, but in particular business, to develop fresh responses in order to flourish in a rapidly changing environment. The Big Debate will provide a unique platform for participants to test their views on what those responses might be. The Big Debate will, in part, include a table brainstorming around the five critical challenges identified for the Annual Meeting 2006: 1) emergence of China and India 2) changing economic landscape 3) new mindsets and changing attitudes 4) creating future jobs 5) regional identities and struggles We invite you to choose one of the above subjects by taking a seat at a designated table.

The Future of Healthcare

Healthcare costs are already as high as 15% of GDP in many developed economies and are set to rise as new treatments become available and populations age. 1) What new models and technologies will help contain healthcare costs? 2) What policies are already proving successful in delivering health solutions in a cost-effective manner? 3) Will new expensive and sophisticated treatments accelerate the shift towards two-tier health systems?

Human Enhancement -- Too Good To Be True?

From choosing the sex of a baby to improving athletic or mental performance through engineering and biotech advances, new methods to enhance the human body are bringing a fresh set of choices. 1) What forms of human enhancement are already available, and what is just around the corner? 2) Is society overly fixated on personal perfection and longevity? 3) Can there ever be international agreement on what is acceptable or unacceptable?