Davos Debrief: Personal Reflections on the AM11

The Annual Meeting is an event like no other. It is often exhilarating, inspiring, exhausting and fun. Now that 2011 Davos is behind us, some of our Tech Pioneers have had a chance to reflect and share their thoughts about their time with us in the mountains of Switzerland.

Claire Boonstra (co-founder, Layar) has a detailed blog post about her Davos experience. Some highlights below:

It was an unforgettable experience; a unique possibility to peek into the world’s decision making and an amazing chance to talk about Layar and Augmented Reality with the key decision makers in our industry.

I got to spend an hour in a small group with Bill Gates, shake the hand of Bill Clinton, sit next to the president of Chile at dinner, brainstorm real solutions for the World Food Program, have all the CEO’s in the media and IT industry listen to me while I spoke to them at an invitation-only dinner, and simply bump into the most amazing and inspiring people from all across the globe.

This year’s group of Tech Pioneers included companies producing plastics from mushroom, producers of CO2 neutral cement, many biotech companies on top of breakthrough innovations in pharma, and of course IT companies in for example mobile banking and social sharing. All pioneers were incredibly inspiring in the way they are dealing with disrupting their industries, and it was nice to discuss the challenges we are all facing in setting your priorities right, getting funding, managing growing teams etc.

I got many positive reactions and good discussions going, and lots of business requests based on them. Mission accomplished

David Ulevitch (CEO, OpenDNS) shared on his blog:

It was amazing to participate in discussions on how we will solve the world’s many problems alongside some of the most impressive, powerful, and accomplished individuals on the planet.

[Being a Tech Pioneer]..is one of the greatest honors our company has ever received, second only to the recommendations our customers give to their friends and colleagues in spreading the word about OpenDNS.

 

Jose Ferreira (CEO, Knewton) created this awesome graphic detailing his tweets from Davos: