Echoes of the 2010 Davos World Economic Forum

Jill Tarter, Alison Gopnik, Loic Le Meur, and Paul Saffo share thoughts and impressions from WEF on how to rethink, redesign, and rebuild.

26 Feb 2010 from 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM Pacific Time

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Almost two years after the beginning of the global financial crisis, the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting dedicated its 40th anniversary to a discussion on how to improve the state of the world through a unique call to action: Rethink, Redesign, and Rebuild. To this end, the agenda of the over 2500 stakeholders from business, government, the media, science, and civil society focused on inquiries such as how to strengthen economic and social welfare, how to mitigate global risks, and how to ensure sustainability at a global and regional level.

swissnex San Francisco is pleased to host local 2010 WEF participants Jill Tarter, director of the Center for SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Research; Alison Gopnik, professor of psychology and affiliate professor of philosophy at UC Berkeley; Loic Le Meur, founder and CEO of Seesmic.com; and Paul Saffo (moderator), forecaster, essayist, and visiting scholar at Media X at Stanford University, for a debriefing session on WEF themes.

This is a unique opportunity share the speakers’ impressions and lessons learned in an intimate setting. The panelists bring their individual perspectives on how to rethink, redesign, and rebuild our economic and social system.

Program

6:30 pm Networking
7:00 pm Panel discussion
8:30 pm Reception and networking
9:30 pm Doors close

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Follow this event on Twitter using #WEFsnx and join the LinkedIn Group. Also, shape the conversation by answering this poll on LinkedIn: Is WEF still a relevant forum in today's world?

Bios

Jill Tarter

Jill Tarter is director of the Center for SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Research, at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California. She also serves on the management board for the Allen Telescope Array, a join project between the SETI Institute and the UC Berkeley Radio Astronomy Laboratory. In 2004, Time Magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2006, she became a National Advisory Board member for the Center for Inquiry’s Office of Public Policy in Washington, D.C. Last year, she was one of three recipients of a Technology, Education, Design (TED) 2009 prize. Many people are familiar with Tarter as portrayed by actress Jodie Foster in the movie Contact. Find out more here.

Allison Gopnik

Alison Gopnik is professor of psychology and affiliate professor of philosophy at UC Berkeley. An internationally recognized leader in the study of child development, she was the first to argue that children’s minds may help us understand deep philosophical questions. Gopnik has authored more than 100 articles and several books, including The Scientist in the Crib, a San Francisco Chronicle bestseller that was translated into 20 languages. She has spoken extensively on children’s minds, including keynote speeches at the WEF, the Organization for Economic Development, and elsewhere. She has appeared on Charlie Rose, Nova, and numerous NPR radio programs. Find out more about her her

Loic Le Meur

Loic Loic Le Meur is founder and CEO of the Twitter/Facebook application and website, Seesmic.com. Seesmic makes it easy to reply to your friends and share text, links, photos, and videos all in one screen. He founded and hosts the number one tech event in Europe, LeWeb.net, with his wife, Geraldine. LeWeb gathers together 2,000 entrepreneurs from 40 countries every year in December.

Prior to Seesmic and LeWeb, Le Meur started several other businesses, including Six Apart Europe, RapidSite, and B2L. BusinessWeek named him one of the 25 most influential people on the web, and he advises the World Economic Forum as well as covers the Annual Summit every year in Davos. Originally from the South of France, he lives in San Francisco and has three sons.

Paul Saffo

Paul Saffo is a forecaster, essayist, and visiting scholar at Stanford University’s Media X research network. He has served as an advisor and Forum Fellow to the WEF since 1997. He has over two decades experience exploring long-term technological change and its practical impact on business and society. Saffo was founding chairman of the Samsung Science Board and serves on a variety of other boards including the Long Now Foundation, the Singapore National Research Foundation Science Advisory Board, and the Pax Group. He is a columnist for ABCNews.com, and his essays have appeared in numerous publications including Harvard Business Review, Fortune, Wired, Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, The New York Times, and the Washington Post. Find out more about him here.

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