KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM MY EXPERIENCE IN DAVOS

After a hectic month that included a trip to the United States, and a return to Japan for the Blockchain Expo Tokyo 2022, I landed in Switzerland to spend four days at the Global Blockchain Business Council’s Blockchain Central Davos. The event, which took place in a house part of a tech pavilion inside the city, focused on promoting further adoption of Blockchain in enterprises and governments. There, I represented Japan as a GBBC ambassador, and also served as a panel speaker. Now that the event is coming to a close, I want to share a few impressions of my experience.

WEF / Specialized events

Simultaneous to the GBBC Central Davos, the city also played host to the main World Economic Forum event attended by top political and business leaders. The WEF invitation only event was a gathering of leading minds but also came with a high cost of attending.

However, there are dozens of other events that coincide with the WEF event on more specialized topics like Climate Change, Medicinal Drugs, and of course the GBBC.  There are a few people who cross over from the main event to the smaller ones, drawn by interest in different key topics discussed there.

Sandra Ro from the GBBC, and Sami Ben Jamaa from Jera

Knowledge Exchange

I had great, quality discussions with many people on a range of topics.  Politics, business, and technology; all had their place. My fellow panel speakers all felt that the general public is critical for gaining trust, traction, and eventual adoption of blockchain.  Blockchain is rapidly improving the core technology and it is becoming more common to talk about gas fees of 1/100 of a penny, and multiple transactions per second.  People were open to truly meet others and I found several people that I felt a deep connection with.

The Technology Pavilion at Davos

Exclusive/Inclusive

There were Technology Pavilions lining one main boulevard.  Most of these pavilions did not have any informational exhibits – just occasional speakers and empty offices for the visiting executives to take a break and catch up on emails. Security was ever-present and many events or parties had queues – the secret seems to be simply registering early and planning the event out.  You could get into many events but it felt like another layer of exclusiveness, depending on if you went to the WEF Davos or how many forums you attended.

Makoto Takemiya, from Soramitsu

Food

This was more critical than expected.  It felt like Disneyland where the food was not that great, it was expensive and took a long time to get.  Therefore, events with food were key!  The GBBC put on a great show with constant streams of food.  One night though, I was lost in conversation and felt hungry, and I went scouting around for food and attended an event just to get my hands on the finger snacks there as my replacement dinner.

Overall it was an amazing experience. I feel enormous gratitude to Sandra Ro and her team for inviting me to be a part of this marvelous event. I am coming back to Japan with more ideas than ever before. Now it’s time to rest, digest the ideas, and start working on delivering better solutions to our clients and partners. Onwards!