I went romping through the icy streets of Davos last week, my first time ever attending the World Economic Forum. I took some field notes along the way and am excited to share them with the collective.
Overall, my experience of the people was that everyone was warm and friendly, and they were building something. I expected a primarily political crowd and while I did shake hands with a few senators, I mostly met entrepreneurs and fellow investors.
When I shared with people about our recent $100M fund investing in pre-seed companies at the frontier of technology and design, I received high-fives and genuine congratulations. It felt like the people I met truly wanted to see Baukunst succeed in our mission. It’s easy to get down on Davos, and some critiques are entirely fair, (especially this one on taxation from Dutch historian Rutger Bregman) but on the promenade, it felt like there was an attitude of openness. All in all, it was a wonderful way to launch into 2024.
Here’s a bit of what I saw:
ONLY ROLEX REMAINS
The WEF is nothing short of a total town takeover. The promenade is a reflection on who’s up and who’s down on any given year. Storefronts are converted to the equivalent of large conference booths. On the tech side, Meta, Qualcomm, Uber, and Palantir all had cush spaces. Traditional news outlets including The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times and CNBC showed up strong; as did newer entrants like Axios.
The entry price for a storefront is $1M, and that’s before build-out or catering. I estimate the total budget for each experience to be in the $3-10M range for the week. One of the only un-transformed locations is the Rolex store. The advertising ROI may actually pencil out for them given the parade of designer-clad global leaders walking the block.
The Saudi-funded futuristic mega-city Neom had a booth, and it was full-on crazy. The immersive video installation dropped guests into an imagined “ultra-luxury” desert oasis, which felt like traveling to Alderaan in Star Wars.
Neom’s recent breakup with Sam Altman and the city’s proximity to war-torn Yemen were not mentioned.
The Female Quotient booth was the most considered in layout with distinct spaces allowing for curated panels, focused work, and coffee house or cocktail conversation depending on the hour. The space was warm, chic and welcoming in a way that is often characteristic of female-architected and oriented spaces when plopped in the midst of male-dominated environs.
Upstairs there was a woman sewing The Female Quotient logo tags onto knit hats. I asked if the sewing machine was a metaphor for the types of labor that used to be available to women. Was this some kind of performance art? Turns out they simply hadn’t sewn enough tags to meet the demand for custom beanies.
There were a few crypto houses, the best of the best being the Filecoin Foundation Sanctuary. Filecoin took over a quaint stone church with massive arched ceilings dressed in purple neon.
While crypto was represented, there were no traces of the excess seen in crypto summer. Conversation bent toward actual blockchain and the distributed web, particularly in the context of AI and robotics vs. in speculative finance. This seemed to be a relief for all involved, especially the technologists.
THE AI CHALLENGE? ACCEPTED.
Of everyone who spoke on AI (and everyone spoke on AI) it was will.i.am who caught my attention. You may know will.i.am from The Black Eyed Peas, but if you make your way around certain tech circles you also know he is deeply embedded in issues of technology, culture and equity. Will has served on the 4th Industrial Revolution Council at WEF since 2017.
When questioned about AI’s threat to the music industry, he answered, “Are we being our most creative chasing the 15 second TikTok algorithm? I don’t think so. If something is going to out-create us, bring it. We need something pushing us on imagination and creativity right now.” Challenge accepted.
When asked about his views on AI deep fakes and the upcoming election, will.i.am’s rhetorical response: “Why is Davos just getting to this topic in 2024, an election year, when we knew about these threats in 2017?”
Other AI takes:
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the World Wide Web (and also happened to be my neighbor for the week), reminded us of Turing’s basic idea: If it seems to be thinking, it is thinking. Freaky.
Many tech leaders were asked when we’d reach artificial general intelligence (AGI). No agreement there. According to Hugging Face, we’re not close. Microsoft leadership, on the other hand, suggests we’re close-ish. As for Google, “Anyone who says they know is lying.”
AN URGENT HEART CALL
I saw Al Gore and John Kerry speak on climate. They are in the toughest race, trying to save the planet before they leave it.
I was left breathless by an astounding, heart-rending plea from three indigenous Chiefs from the Brazilian Amazon dressed in the full regalia of their tribes. Their words were followed by a sung blessing wherein women are gathering the fruits of the forest. Their message:
"We must rebuild society based on three principals: peace, love and forgiveness…Nature is asking for help from its children. We human beings must come together, the world governments, the social movements, the big companies. Not for us to save the planet, but to save our own selves and our existence on this earth.”
It was the only standing ovation I witnessed all week.
DRINKS, MORE DRINKS & AN UNUSUAL DESSERT
The only Davos event that charged money for anything was the Burning Man party. Ironic given that Burning Man is built on a gifting economy. The party cost 100 CHF to enter. It was co-sponsored by a champagne brand selling bottles for 300 CHF, approximately $345 USD.
Luckily, the drinks were free and flowing at the iconic piano bar courtesy of Cloud Flare. Signage was tastefully nonexistent, dropped in favor of a lovely orange motif and strong executive presence. The peak piano bar moment came when everyone gathered ‘round, and started belting out the 4 Non Blondes song “What’s Up?”
“And so I wake in the morning and I step outside / And I take a deep breath and I get real high / And I scream from the top of my lungs / What’s going on?”
What’s going on, indeed. There seemed to be far more questions than answers at Davos this year.
Extreme flight delays left me stranded in Zurich. I made the best of the situation and took a car to Rosi, a Michelin watch list restaurant known for its Bavarian fare, with a twist. I’ll say — my dinner came to a triumphant close with the arrival of a giant glass dildo filled with mandarin syrup suffused through pine shaved ice. The dessert was dubbed “yellow snow.”
LET’S KEEP BUILDING
Eventually, my plane did take off. Up in the air over the continent, I felt reaffirmed in what we’re doing at Baukunst and fired up to keep building. This week in Davos reinvigorated my interest in climate tech. It also reminded me of the power of getting together in person instead of on zoom. Let’s do more of that! I’m looking forward to a fabulous year of collaborating and creating together.
