Swiss Event Is the Artist’s Vision of the World Economic Forum: Designing the Future with Creativity (2025-11-18T12:44:00+05:30)

The first day attendance, in the old town of Basel – credit : Natalia Lorenzo, Maribel Lorenzo, Birgitte Kronsbjerg, Jonas Singer. Average folk might have all kinds of questions about the World Economic Forum and what goes on there, but for two visionary women, the question was clear: where are all the artists? For such a high-profile gathering of world leaders, thought leaders, and business leaders, how could there be no room for authentic creativity? That burning inquiry inevitably led them to ask: if Klaus Schwab can organize a conference in a beautiful Swiss town and try to plan the future of human society, shouldn’t artists help expand that vision, bringing bold perspectives, fresh imagination, and the soul, story, and spirit of our time to the decision-making tables? The Future of Humanity Experience, recently concluded across five locations in Basel during Art Basel Week, could be styled as a complementary expansion of what was inaugurated in Davos earlier this year. Hosted, energized, and enlivened through art and collaboration, four full-day events unfolded, each gathering a new constellation of 40 co-creators from diverse disciplines and from all corners of the globe to co-create a shared vision of the future. Artists and organizers Iwona Fluda and Murièle ‘Solange’ Bolay put together the whole event in roughly 4 months, guided by a shared understanding of the scope and character of the project that almost never needed to be explained or spoken aloud. Speaking to American media for the first time since the successful event launch during ArtBasel, the two women document their remarkable journey and success in creating what may become one of the most hotly anticipated conferences in Europe. Event artist Replicah (Sabrina Bühlmann) invites the conference to immerse themselves in her street-side installation – credit: Natalia Lorenzo, Maribel Lorenzo, Birgitte Kronsbjerg, Jonas Singer. Meeting in the ‘Under Davos “I have been to Davos during the World Economic Forum 4 times at least, and I felt that creatives and artists are not represented there,” said Fluda, originally from Poland. “There is a type of void and missing space.” “How come in this huge arena of world leaders, politicians, entrepreneurs, business people and investors there’s very little creativity or creative output visible?” Solange, who has been attending the WEF on and off since 2007, recalls a different energy back then. “In my opinion, it was very different then than what it is now. It was a lot more exclusive to attend the inner programs,” she told GNN. “Now, the village area has opened up to a much broader audience, and that’s where more conscious, less transactional conversations start to flow.” According to her, Davos village is now the largest circle and what attracts the most independent thought leaders and entrepreneurs during WEF Week today. It’s also where the two women, who met through entrepreneur chats, curated an art exhibition that offered a glimpse of what stages like Davos could become if artists and creatives were given a place in the spotlight. Originally proposed in Davos, their Future of Humanity Art Walk was a resounding success, reaching over 300,000 people worldwide, welcoming 4,000 on-site visitors, and featured artists from all continents, ranging in age from 6 to 85. With just seven weeks of preparation, what began as a small passion project quickly evolved into a full-blown immersive experience and event week during Art Basel. “With my company MSB & Partners, we’ve been doing business transformations for over 18 years, and for the past 2.5 years, we’ve started incorporating art into these transformation processes.” Solange says. The paintings not only help inspire new ways of thinking and problem solving, she says, but act as an “anchor”, reinforcing that transformative mindset among company employees. By Solange’s estimation, most enterprising activities focus on predicting certain trends, gravitating towards mega trends, and then somewhere in between products and services arrive on the market, a process she describes as “very brainy and calculated.” “It’s a transactional focus versus an explorational one where we design the world we want to see.” In the case of the Future of Humanity Experience, co-designing a world was a notion both women had arrived at independently: with society changing so fast, what kind of world do we want to live in? “We both have worked in different setups… internally in organizations; externally, as consultants, as business owners, and for me personally it was always the question about how can we really co-create things together without fighting against each other?” Fluda said. “There really wasn’t time to think about it too much,” Solange remembers. “We were just in action mode and we were kind of ‘guided’ by a vision, that we never really spoke about, but we seemed to have and it was a very special time.” Co-creators viewing an exhibited work by Maritsa Kissamitaki – credit: Natalia Lorenzo, Maribel Lorenzo, Birgitte Kronsbjerg, Jonas Singer. The Future of Humanity Experience The bootstrapped and crowdsourced events were a whirlwind 9 months of envisioning, organizing, partaking in, and debriefing after the most recent Future of Humanity Experience in Basel. “How I operate is more like, ‘oh, there is an idea’—just this little spark. ‘I align with that, I feel like there is so much more we can do, how about we run the 1st sprint and see if it sticks?,'” Fluda told GNN. “That’s kind of my approach for anything. And then, if it does, as in this case, surprisingly, it did, then what else can we do with that?” Some 100 artists from all around the world—from Trinidad and Tobago to China—submitted works for the exhibitions. A week of enjoying curated art shows, presentations, open forums, and exquisite catered lunches left this reporter exhausted, but with a distinct feeling that Fluda and Solange had struck a chord with the very fabric of Western society. The advent of the internet has seen the metaphorical ‘public square’ distributed online, while the traditional forums of our time: the corner cafe, the library, the bookstore, the townhall—have lost their relevance. Academia’s trend towards hyper-specialization dampens cross-disciplinary dialogue; the behavior of our public intellectuals gradually came to be governed by social media engagement, and the rise of the digital influencer means that from travel, to fitness, to history and politics, topics are examined almost exclusively at the surface level. The curated exhibitions at the Future of Humanity Experience were powerful. The themes they explored were broad and impactful, but even if an attendee has never visited an art gallery in their lives, what the event offers is the ‘forum’ as it may have been in our ancestors’ day. Here was a chance to discourse with mastery and enterprise from all over the professional world, and for the noblest of aims—co-creating a vision of the future we’d all like to see. “I was there as a business person,” Solange says remembering her first art exhibit in Under Davos, “no one knew who created those pieces.” “So I was able to listen to the conversations that happened in front of these canvases, and it was so interesting because it’s exactly the conversations that we want to hear happening, you know, in the boardrooms.”After a successful launch, their outlook is broad and bright. Fluda and Solange perceive the future of the Future of Humanity Experience to be more than just an art exhibit, but a force, a forum, a service, and a community. Next year’s edition can only be bolder. Swiss Event Is the Artist’s Vision of the World Economic Forum: Designing the Future with Creativity

Facebook, Twitter shares drop as European giant pulls ads (2020-07-22T11:29:00+05:30)

JUN 27, 2020 SAN FRANCISCO : Shares of Facebook and Twitter dropped sharply Friday after the the giant company behind brands such as Ben & Jerry's ice cream and Dove soap said it will halt U.S. advertising on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram through at least the end of the year. That European consumer-product maker, Unilever, said it took the move to protest the amount of hate speech online. Unilever said the polarized atmosphere in the United States ahead of November's presidential election placed responsibility on brands to act. Shares of both Facebook and Twitter fell roughly 7% following Unilever's announcement. The company, which is based in the Netherlands and Britain, joins a raft of other advertisers pulling back from online platforms. Facebook in particular has been the target of an escalating movement to withhold advertising dollars to pressure it to do more to prevent racist and violent content from being shared on its platform. We have decided that starting now through at least the end of the year, we will not run brand advertising in social media newsfeed platforms Facebook, Instagram and Twitter in the U.S.," Unilever said. Continuing to advertise on these platforms at this time would not add value to people and society. Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On Thursday, Verizon joined others in the Facebook boycott. Sarah Personette, vice president of global client solutions at Twitter, said the company's mission is to serve the public conversation and ensure Twitter is a place where people can make human connections, seek and receive authentic and credible information, and express themselves freely and safely. Copyright © Jammu Links News Source: Jammu Links News

British PM kicks off China trip with soccer diplomacy (2013-12-04T10:56:00+05:30)

The Premier League sees the Chinese market for its matches as having the best growth prospects in the world, at the heart of an East Asian market already worth around £200 million a year to the league and to UK trade. The new partnership will be sealed in a co-operation agreement due to be initialled at an event in Beijing with Culture Secretary Maria Miller and former England and Chelsea footballer Graeme Le Saux on December 2. It will include: Premier League working with Chinese Super League and China Football Association on programmes and projects to promote and develop football in China, including with Chinese Super League clubs such as Beijing Guoan and Shanghai Shenhua. Chinese Super League to provide support and advice in the promotion and marketing of Premier League and Premier League clubs in China. Both leagues working together on regular exchanges and training programmes, including delegations from both leagues attending in match days in the other's country. Premier Skills - coaching and referee training: The Premier League and British Council are also set to announce radical plans to further roll out their Premier Skills coaching and referee training initiative development with the aim of reaching over 1.2 million Chinese students by 2016. From 2014 to 2016, Premier Skills will be delivered under the Chinese Ministry of Education's initiative – National University Alliance of Football Education in Community. Premier Skills will be incorporated into the Chinese government's curriculum to help develop a core group of highly skilled teachers and coaches in China empowered and confident to deliver community and schools football programmes. This will be rubberstamped through a co-operation agreement between the Premier League, British Council and Chinese Ministry of Education signed at today's event in Beijing. In addition, the Premier League and British Council are due to launch a partnership with the Chinese Football Association to train over 200 young referees from 2014 to 2016. These coaches and referees, trained by UK experts, will help the long term, healthy development of football in China. Commenting on Premier League's expansion in China, the Prime Minister said: "It's great to kick off this visit to China with such a tangible example of how we are strengthening ties between our peoples and creating business opportunities for British companies along the way. This is a win-win for both the UK and China and demonstrates how our strong relationship can help us both to succeed in the global race." Chief Executive of the Premier League Richard Scudamore, who is in the Prime Minister's trade delegation, will also attend today's event at which 15 Premier Skills Chinese grassroot coaches, who have just completed a training course, will demonstrate their improved skills with over 150 local school students participating in the event. The coaches will be led by head coach Johnnie Garside, Community Coach from Everton FC. Maria Miller, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, said: "British football is renowned all over the world from our clubs to our fans, our players to our history. The strength of the Premier League isn't just measured by the sheer number of people that watch the games, but the impact it has on people's lives. Knowing that, it is wonderful that the British Council and Premier League's Premier Skills programme takes the UK's football expertise and uses it to create opportunities for young people across the globe, not least in China. "I am delighted to see the positive impact that Premier Skills in China has had on young people and their local communities, will now be extended to many more through this new partnership." Premier League Chief Executive Richard Scudamore said: "The impact that Premier Skills has had so far in China over these past 5 years is testament to how important we see our role in helping football develop in the country. This exciting new chapter for the programme will see a huge increase in the numbers of teachers and coaches who will receive training from Premier League coach educators, with an estimated 1.2 million young students then benefitting from quality football coaching over these next 3 years. "Through this long-term commitment, we hope that Premier Skills will play a valuable part in growing football's grassroots in China." British Council Chief Executive Martin Davidson said: "Premier Skills is a fantastic example of the way the British Council uses the power of sport to engage with young people and connect them to the UK. We are therefore proud of our partnership with the Premier League on this programme. "Adapting Premier Skills to each country it operates in and working with the right partners is key to its success and nowhere is this demonstrated more clearly than in China. I look forward to working closely with the Premier League, Ministry of Education PRC and the CFA to take Premier Skills into  a  new  and exciting phase in China." Source: Article, Image: flickr.com, China.org.cn

Beckham to promote football in China: will he keep the fee? (2013-05-08T21:00:00+05:30)

AS IF David Beckham has not got enough on his plate what with learning French, the former England captain may also have to take Mandarin classes after becoming China's first global soccer ambassador. The curious appointment will see the veteran midfielder attend league matches in China and visit clubs in the country to promote the game to children, while at the same time playing for Paris Saint-Germain in the French league. The 37-year-old seemed undaunted by the challenge and declared that he was "honoured to have been asked to play such an important role at this special time in Chinese football history". The Chinese Football Association [CFA] said it hoped that Beckham would "attract global attention to Chinese football and the CSL [Chinese Super League]". The appointment comes on the eve of the 10th CSL season and 20 years after the game turned professional in China. However, things have not gone smoothly for the sport in recent times. Former Chelsea stars Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka were lured to the country but failed to make an impression. Both players are now back in Europe. Last month the country's top referee, who took charge of a game at the 2002 World Cup, was jailed for five-and-a-half years for taking bribes to fix matches. He was one of nine people convicted after a widespread corruption probe. The CFA also handed out 33 lifetime bans and 25 five-year bans to other players and officials caught up in the scandal. "With the rot so widespread in Chinese football, little wonder the CFA opted for an outsider – someone with clean hands (and feet) – as its ambassador," said the Financial Times. "Chinese officials expect his popularity and influence to restore the game's credibility in their country," reported the Daily Mail. However, there are questions over how much Beckham, who is donating his salary from PSG to charity, will be paid in his new job. Italian sports paper Gazzetta Dello Sport claims the former Manchester United and Real Madrid star could be paid as much as £50m over five years for promoting Chinese football. That claim has been angrily denied in the Chinese media. A CSL spokesman told the People's Daily newspaper that the fee was around £1.7m and would be paid by a "partner company of the International Management Group". Whatever the fee, it is not yet clear whether Beckham will keep the money or donate that too. Source: The Week UK