主播大秀 NEWS | World Economic Forum 2008

Leaving Davos with a boost of inspiration

Tim Weber
27 Jan 08, 03:50 PM

So that was it: Davos 2008.

This year felt different than the past two or three annual meetings of the World Economic Forum.

Less glitz and glamour, more 'back to business' - and you can read all about it in our.

The good people of Davos are getting their town back. This lunchtime the squads of riot police marched back to their buses and left town, the road blocks are disappearing, the high wire fences and - on step mountain sides - the roles of barbed wire are being dismantled.

I will later post an article about the big themes of this year's forum.

Let me just tell you about the very last session this Sunday, just before lunchtime, because it encapsulates a little bit of what Davos is all about.

Yes, the agenda is packed with hardcore business topics: what risks do companies face; what's the heatmap for mergers and acquisitions; how do central banks try to tackle the current market turmoil.

But it is spiced with sessions that teach you the unexpected. The power of scents, for example, or radical advances in biotechnology.

My favourite session, though, was today. is the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, and he gave a talk about music and leadership.

After all, a conductor may have to control hundreds of musicians and singers.

But what could have been a boring talk about people management, turned out to be the most inspiring 90 minutes I have had for a very long time.

Ben Zander did not tell his audience how to change other people. He told them how they had to change themselves, to become better bosses, teachers, parents, partners, husbands and wifes.

Playing his audience like an instrument, he took them on a tour de force of emotions - exhilaration, hilarity, sadness and deep insight. There was much laughter and there were many tears, from both men and women.

His audience were Davos men and women, bosses of big companies and social entrepreneurs, academics and religious leaders from a whole rainbow of cultural and ethnic backgrounds.

He taught them what he calls the "art of possibility", an approach of positive thinking that - he admitted - might not sit well with the feeling of being in a "downward spiral" of workload and pressure and regulations.

Still, it was hugely inspiring, and fun - not least when he persuaded the audience to participate in an enthusiastic rendition of Schiller's Ode to Joy, from Beethoven's ninth symphony.

Many of the forum's open sessions can be found on the and I hope that Mr Zander's talk will soon be featured there. It would be worth watching.

This is probably the last of our Davos blogs. I hope we gave you a good flavour of what was happening here on the ground.

Until next year!