What's a nice girl like me doing in a place like this?
Meeting the global elite: A report from the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland
Spending a week with the world's elite in a remote ski resort in Switzerland was the furthest thing from my mind two years ago. Then suddenly, People Tree's work was picked up on the radar screen of Klaus and Hildi Schwab, who as well as being founders of the WEF in 1972, founded the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship. Never having won so much as a swimming prize, I was really surprised to be acknowledged as one of the world's "Outstanding Social Entrepreneurs". And that's how my journey to WEF meetings began.
I am here to share my experience of Fair Trade and how People Tree works to impact poor people's lives in the developing world. I will also be giving a couple of talks on the need for morals and values in business. We all hope we can have some influence on decisions that may otherwise further undermine human rights, development and environmental sustainability.
Social Entrepreneurs (SEs) are people who use a business model for social innovation. I am really lucky to be here with 40 other SEs, working in a range of areas from Fair Trade, income creation, human rights, homelessness, etc. including Mel Young, founder of the Big Issue Scotland, Gillian Caldwell from WITNESS, Sanjit 'Bunker' Roy, founder of Barefoot College India, Martin Fisher, co-founder of Kick-Start East Africa and other amazing people.
Fortunately, whilst travelling here, I had four hours to wade through a programme of hundreds of meetings, to decide what to attend. Scattered over a dozen hotels and the Congress Centre, my Thursday 26th starts at 7am with a breakfast meeting on global issues, moves back and forth around the village between 8 venues, and finishes at 11pm with a Dinner for Civil Society. Just like last month at the WTO Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong (where People Tree put on a Fair Trade Fashion Show to great acclaim and front page news), I find myself not part of the establishment and not part of the protestors; the movement in Social Entrepreneurship is working with one foot in the "business" world and one in the movement for Social Justice.
I'll be shuffling around from place to place in snow boots and ski wear, with my Fair Trade Sunday best underneath and heels in a bag, for the meetings. I'm literally walking the Fair Trade talk. Highlights of the day: sledging 20 minutes down from my hotel to the village, from the pitch black of night (and not being able to stop myself scream) with a dozen other SEs.
Check back soon to find out how I get on.