FC NOW: The Fast Company Weblog
January 27, 2007
Davos: Last Day
Today is the last day of my maiden voyage to Davos. I'm getting more emboldened in my belief that the real benefit to coming here is the networking...both deliberate and serendipitous. Our company (Advanced Diamond Technologies (http://www.thindiamond.com)) made tie clips with the names of some of the luminaries written in diamond. Part of our evangelism is showing people what's possible with diamond (we convert natural gas into diamond), so what better way than to have a personalized gift, made from diamond, to give the world's influencers and thought leaders, no?
These personalized tie clips has allowed me to meet the chairmen of Coca-Cola, NBC, Google, etc. In some instances the recipient has looked at me like a coddling sycophant, but in most cases it has engendered really cool conversations and occasional business opportunities. To protect the ethic of Davos, I make sure everyone knows I'm not asking for anything in return...just helping to spread our message.
Last night I was fortunate enough to attend an exclusive reception hosted by a very high-powered venture capital firm. Aside from the great wine and food, Shimon Peres dropped in for about an hour of Q&A. His eloquence, instincts and charisma are electrifying, and listening to him was, so far, the highlight of this journey. The thing I most remember him saying was, "Everyone has equal rights, but we also all have an equal right to be different." [That's the quote to the best of my recollection].
Cool, stimulating, exciting stuff. Today I actually intend to go to some of the conference sessions. There's a black tie banquet tonight.
Posted by Neil Kane at January 27, 2007 5:55 AM | Category: davos 2007 |
1 Comment
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Hey Neil,
How about coming to the other end of the spectrum in Wisconsin on the 23rd to 26th of August 2007.
Check out www.BarCampUSA.org
You might find that there is more value in networking with 5000+ people from the other end of the spectrum....the people that are doing the hard end of developing future IT strategy.
:)
Cheers,
Dean