The St. Gallen Symposium, held annually in Switzerland since student riots in the 1960s, promotes cross-generational dialogue. This year's theme of "A New Generational Contract" set a path for a more resilient, sustainable future.
The Symposium was held last week, as always, at the University of St.Gallen — the leading German-language business school. A *lot* happened over my three days there; below are the highlights.
Wednesday May 3rd:
• Between dinner courses, I provided a half-hour talk on the risks but also the utopian potential of hyper-intelligent A.I. in our lifetimes to sixty young-ish (<45 y.o.) global leaders, plus a half hour of deeply thoughtful Q&A.
• Thanks to Livia Mühlheim and Cosima von Wackerbarth for hosting this well-run event.
Thursday May 4th:
• Nicolai Tangen, CEO of the $1.3-trillion Norwegian sovereign fund, provided an entertaining talk on "leading through transformation" — it was the most personally valuable session I've ever attended and a masterclass in audience engagement.
• The extraordinary global correspondent Martina Fuchs hosted me for an hour-long on-stage discussion on how we can make the most of A.I. (particularly consumer applications like ChatGPT) in our work and personal lives. (I missed a very well-reviewed session by the Khan Academy's Sal Khan due to this 😭)
• Thanks to Andreas Nef for organizing this first-ever "St. Gallen In Town" session (that was open to the public) and to Shaan Khosla for making the trek to attend!
Friday May 5th:
• Spent an hour in enriching conversation with Mamphela Ramphele, co-president of The Club of Rome.
• The session featuring Nobel Peace Laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk on the Russian invasian of Ukraine received a protracted standing ovation and was widely regarded as one of the most moving experiences of attendees' lives.
• Filmed a SuperDataScience podcast episode with the dynamic Allegra Alessi, an outstanding technical communicator. Look out for her episode (#680) on automating industrial IoT machines with data science on May 19th.
Throughout the week, I reconnected with many inspiring old friends from previous Symposia and met many exceptional new ones, particularly a large number of electrifying social-impact-oriented entrepreneurs and business leaders.
