47 tips to make the most of Davos

Dear fellow Global Shapers,

I am on my flight back to my homeland from the most exciting experience I have had over the past decade. As I am at the altitude of 10,000 meters, I cannot resist framing it for you in a special way. When you are just beginning your career you have a low start and the growth is fast. Imagine a rocket being launched into space from the ground. You are heading to the stars, bursting out flame and burning your fuel. And that lasts for some time until you get to the thermosphere. There you notice that the earth is majestic, the silence around is meditative and life is beautiful. You still have fuel, but for some reasons you opt to follow the orbit and enjoy your life. Your mass grows critical enough to get 2 or 3 natural satellites within your gravitation. You are living.

Now, one sunny morning you see a shuttle, approaching you at an unidentifiable speed with unknown intentions. You are trying to get ready for the collision and when it happens the shuttle takes you on board and carries you through the millions of galaxies at a speed of light and drops you off at the pick-up spot. The orbit is the same, the earth is there, but you are different. No way can you keep following the orbit any more. You check the tanks and you start the engine.

That is what I feel like after one week in Davos. And in this little note I will share every little tip I have used and/or should have used to take most of it.

Before: 

1. Agenda. When going to Davos I had two very specific goals: find global distribution partners for my product; and get heavyweight people on the board of my company. I am in point-of-care blood diagnostics, hence any healthcare / pharmaceutical / first aid / biochemistry relationship would be of interest. If you do not have an agenda – most of my tips would not apply to you. But if you do – make sure you read to the end.

2. Preparation. Remember, 80% of the Forum work needs to be done before you come to Davos. The more you do before the event, the more you’ll get out of it. Once you’ve got congratulations email, the sequence for you would be: Profile – Participants – Sessions. What that means?

3. The first thing you do – make sure that your Profile in every Forum and public database resembles your agenda. If you have 3 job titles and 4 NGOs running, make sure it is clear what your primary focus is. Do this first, as that is what GS team needs to know about you when pitching you for sessions.

4. The second action comes, when you get a list of participants. You print out the list of 2,500 people and walk through it one by one. 80% of the names and companies might be unfamiliar. Google them. You do this with each and every of them, as 98% of the unknown names are the people you would love to meet (remaining 2% are fellow Global Shapers