On Monday, 21. January 2020 we gathered over 100 international re-thinkers and change-makers at the second edition of an event series called “DAVUZ” in the Alpine Rhine Valley. We developed the World Systemic Forum to engage with the momentum of one of the biggest assemblies of politics and economics in Davos and also offer an alternative for human beings to engage in pressing topics around system change on various levels from AI to identity in a future society narrative.
For us we have once and again felt and seen the benefits of a cross-disciplinary and -generational approach with a super diverse group of contributors at the World Systemic Forum. The youngest attendee – Emilia – was only 3 months old whereas the oldest participant is over 70 years old. We are always happy to welcome the most curious human beings at our event, as it is a great reminder of who we are rethinking, redesigning and reframing for.
In our first panel, we interviewed a former leading member of MI6 about how he sees the world. What we heard was fascinating and at the same time very frightening. We will not share details on it due to their “house rules” as this has been an unusual insight into the life and challenges of a secret agency and it’s associates. But what really glorified his role was the entertainment industry, the Q Division and James Bond of course, which created a new narrative of his agency and tasks.
Speaking about entertainment, as the day continued we held our second panel: Entertainment is King*Queen. With a panel filled with female change-makers – we were proud to challenge the status quo. Anke Brack (NZZ) moderated the conversation and got to questions like: Who has power in the Digital Modern Era?
It’s opinion leaders like Oprah or simply Disney characters. They are new kinds of decision makers and opinion leaders/ influencers. We learned from Lorena Guillé (Cinepolis) that they do major efforts in the entertainment industry to integrate pressing social and global issues within the narratives of productions, that reach millions of people. We learned from Roya Baghdi, that engaged youth are coming up with new standings in the moving pictures sector. Victoria Ullmann and Aaron Gingrich (Iocus Foundation) have shared information about streaming services, the so called Over-The-Top Media offering, which has changed the industry radically.
We also had Marc Buckley on the stage, one of the first to be trained by Al Gore as a Climate Speaker, on a mission to empower people to live an adaptive lifestyle of health and sustainability within planetary boundaries and H.R.H. Princess Abze Djigma, a Mossi Princess from Burkina Faso, who shared her important responsibility as an African Princess to improve the life of the bottom of the pyramid by empowering people by being a role model. Entertainment is a new form of “power”, detached from a few actors as before and “we should be aware of the influence of new media to be ready for action”, says Rudi Hilti after the panel.
In our third panel, we engaged with the topic of “Rethinking identity”. We often found, that people confuse nationality with identity. With our digital republic of responsible optimists, we started an experiment for a digital citizenship. With Valerie Khan (Digital Equity d-eq.org), Bruna Braga (MIT Solve), Sascha Gartenbach (Global Citizenship Foundation) and Sergey Ivliev (Perm University Cryptolab) we discussed the shift of our sense for identity and belonging. The Distributed Ledger Technology has made big waves, but what we often forget or underestimate is the issue of identity, while currencies get too much attention. Nowadays, many people are not even aware of what is real and what is fake with so-called “likes”, content and data. To distinguish between human and autonomous activity will become a real game changer.
In-between programs, we ate, we talked and we listened. Our all-vegan food was partially sponsored by Blue Horizon. During our midday-break we took turns touring the tunnels of Hagerbach and listening to a reading of THEHUS.book <<Your Choice>> by Christopher.
During the tour through the exceptional location, our guests were offered an insight into cutting edge projects like underground farming experiments in the tunnels of Hagerbach.
“Systemic challenges require systemic answers. We tend to react at short notice and fall into panic mode, but how can we redesign a system from scratch? The big questions that we also ask ourselves. The imagination to rethink systemic questions is the beginning, the actions must follow these thoughts, detached from panic mode.” – Rudi Hilti
System Embedded-Trust:
At the fourth panel we had two of our (THEHUS)life-long friends Anton and Richard – the “great grandfather of the crypto industry” – with us, who together founded Lykke. Next to the both of them, we also had Manuel, founder of the digital bank Sygnum and Alexander a distributed ledger investor with us. Within this panel “System embedded trust and distributed power” we once again brushed on the challenges and benefits of the blockchain and distributed ledger industry. We have discussed human-centric systems detached from hypes and greed. “Real” great grandfathers of the distributed ledger industry and computer scientists have given their insight into the future of the technology and the missing part of crypto-identity, a real solution against online fake.
Last but not least, Ashoka, Co-Impact and the University of Zurich pre-announced a study that was conducted in cooperation with the World Economic Forum. They analysed the funding gap between impact and investments. We have learnt that systemic change requires collaboration between many different actors and true partnerships.
All participants agreed that a lot has to change and that optimism will help us to move forward, we just need to think big and coherently. Sustainability will outperform and it will be the big growth market of the future and technology plays an important role in this.
Christopher leaves us with some nagging questions for the next weeks and months:
- What happens to our excited thought leadership bubble once we dropped the words “digital” and “sustainable”?
- Why do we really invest time, travel and cash to meet for an event?
- Is it possible to put humaneness back to the center of all our behaviour?
- Does it need magic to fully trust each other?
- Can we increase effectiveness by prohibiting ourselves from all hidden agendas?
Speakers:
PANEL I – MIND OPENING OPINIONS ABOUT THE DIGITAL MODERN ERA:
Martin Clements | Former head of Technology at the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Rudolf Hilti | THEHUS.institute [moderator]
Christopher Peterka | THEHUS.institute [moderator]
PANEL II – ENTERTAINMENT IS KING
H.R.H. Princess Abze Djigma | UN Special Envoy/ Burkina Faso
Marc Buckley | Activist an Resilient Futurist
Lorena Guillé | Cinepolis
Roya Baghai | High Resolves
Victoria Ullmann | Iocus Foundation
Aaron Gingrich | Iocus Fund
Rudolf Hilti | The System Change Foundation
Anke Brack | NZZ / Moderator
PANEL III – RETHINK IDENTITY
Valerie Khan | d-eq.org
Silvia Bastante de Unverhau | Chief Philanthropie of Co-Impact
Bruna Braga | Head of Partnerships MIT Solve
Sergey Ivliev | Perm University Cryptolab
Sascha Gartenbach | Global Citizenship Foundation
Rudolf Hilti | THE HUS.institute
Christopher Peterka | THEHUS.institute / Moderator
PANEL IV – SYSTEM EMBEDDED TRUST AND DISTRIBUTED POWER
Alexander Spuller | Co-Founder of several distributed ledger companies
Manuel Krieger | Co-Founder of Sygnum Bank
Richard Olsen | Co-Founder Oanda Corp. (1997), Co-Founder Lykke (2013)
Anton Golub | Co-Founder of Flovtec
Rudolf Hilti | THE HUS.institute
Christopher Peterka | THEHUS.institute / Moderator
