MySpace and YouTube "reporters" chosen to cover the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2009

Matthias Lüfkens, Associate Director, Tel.: +41 (0)79 514 4781; matthias.luefkens@weforum.org

• Rebecca McQuigg from Los Angeles chosen to represent the MySpace community http://www.myspace.com/myspacejournal
• Pablo Camacho from Bogotá, Colombia, chosen to represent the YouTube community http://www.youtube.com/davos
• World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2009 participants to take part in the Davos Debates and reply to videos submitted by YouTube users: http://www.weforum.org/annualmeeting

Geneva, Switzerland, 26 January 2009 − Two “citizen reporters” from MySpace and YouTubeTM have been invited to the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2009 in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, following online contests on both sites. These citizen reporters won the opportunity to attend the prestigious Meeting and will report to their respective communities using the MySpace and YouTube platforms.

Rebecca McQuigg from Los Angeles, California, USA, has been chosen to represent the MySpace community by the MySpace Journal panel of judges that included Mark Adams, Head of Communications at the World Economic Forum; Arianna Huffington, Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Huffington Post; Frank Luntz, Communications Specialist and Political Consultant; and Chris DeWolfe, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of MySpace. The MySpace Journal contest asked contestants to submit a video explaining why they should be chosen to attend the Annual Meeting and report on it for the global MySpace community, as well as answer one of the following questions:

• If you were given the opportunity to take one person (living or historical) to Davos to make an impact on the Annual Meeting, who would it be, and why?
• If you could engage the entire MySpace community in doing one thing to help make an economic difference, what would it be? (Click here to see her reply.)
• Why do you deserve the chance to attend the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2009 as the MySpace Special Correspondent, and how will your participation engage the audience?

Rebecca McQuigg will receive all-expense-paid travel to/from Davos, Switzerland, and media access to the venue. She will document her Davos experience via blogging/vlogging on MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/myspacejournal), and on the Wall Street Journal online.

Pablo Camacho from Bogotá, Colombia, has been chosen to represent the YouTube community. Pablo is a student and an independent writer. He is also singer and guitarist in the band The Mmodcats. He is one of over 250 YouTubers who participated in the Davos Debates, sending in video replies from all over the world including Afghanistan, Canada, Egypt, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Panama, the Philippines, Russia, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. Click here to watch Pablo’s winning entry. Follow his reports from Davos on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/davos.

“The responses to our questions have been overwhelming and even better than last year,” said Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum. “We are very happy to have opened up the discussions in Davos to a truly global audience thanks to social networks.”

“We were thrilled to have received over 100 submissions in only five days; it was difficult, but we were able to quickly narrow the compelling submissions down to the top five and unanimously picked Rebecca as the MySpace Journal winner,” said Chris DeWolfe, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of MySpace. “We truly feel that this is the opportunity of a lifetime and are excited to have Rebecca represent the MySpace community at the most prestigious conference in the world.”

“For the past few years we've worked with the World Economic Forum to help world leaders and citizens share ideas on how to improve the world, but this is the first year that someone from the YouTube community will attend the Forum in person,” said Patrick Walker, YouTube's Director of Video Partnerships for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Pablo's video on company ethics was insightful and sharp, and we're delighted that he'll be reporting from Davos and putting to world leaders the questions that the YouTube community would like answered.”

Although the contest on YouTube is closed the general public can still reply to the following four questions:
• Are you confident that global growth will be restored in 2009? http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=CFAFC5E713AAFA57
• Will the environment lose out to the economy in 2009? http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=288CD0B40EAAD9A3
• Will the Obama administration improve the state of the world in 2009? http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=987D66F7E7CEFC9F
• Should company executives have a code of ethics similar to doctors and lawyers? http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=36A1357FD60B4E86

A selection of the best videos will be shown in key sessions at the Annual Meeting in Davos-Klosters. Over 650,000 people have watched the appeal videos and the video submissions on YouTube since the contest was launched in mid-December.

The over 2,500 participants at the Annual Meeting have also been encouraged to participate actively in the Davos Debates and reply to the video submissions in a specially designed YouTube video corner in the Congress Centre in Davos-Klosters.

Notes to Editors

YouTube press contact: Kate Berland, press@youtube.com
MySpace press contact: Jamie Schumacher, jschumacher@myspace.com, Tel. +1 310 969 7087

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Incorporated as a foundation in 1971, and based in Geneva, Switzerland, the World Economic Forum is impartial and not-for-profit; it is tied to no political, partisan or national interests (http://www.weforum.org).