What’s everyone talking about at Davos 2020?

This year is the 50th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos. Business, governments and civil society have gathered to discuss the most pressing global issues with a view to improving the state of the world.

For the last nine years, WEFLIVE – KPMG has provided a window onto the Annual Meeting in Davos, monitoring the online conversation, exploring insights and publishing trends from news and social media surrounding the event.

This year we’re sensing a real desire to take action and implement change on the critical issues facing the world.

The week started out on Monday with US President Donald Trump emerging as by far the most mentioned Annual Meeting participant ahead of his special address on Tuesday. He spoke about how the US is in the midst of an economic boom and announced that the country would be joining a World Economic Forum initiative to restore a trillion trees by 2050.

President Trump remains the most mentioned person at the Annual Meeting along with climate activist Greta Thunberg. Greta has attended the Annual Meeting for the entire week, addressing business leaders on the lack of action that has been taken despite evidence of a looming climate catastrophe.

“Climate change”, “positive” and “impact” are trending terms on Twitter, which highlights the event’s focus this year to act on the climate change crisis and make a positive impact in years to come.

Our mid-week media coverage analysis shows “How to save the planet” was the most mentioned topic by the media on Wednesday. Britain’s Prince Charles announced the launch of the Sustainable Markets Initiative and Council in collaboration with the World Economic Forum to help identify ways to rapidly decarbonize the global economy and make the transition to sustainable markets.

The trends online for 2020 have slightly shifted from 2019, where gender equality and diversity emerged as key themes, but climate change, renewables and sustainability have remained a large part of the conversation, along with geopolitics.

Alongside the dominating topics, there are a number of significant reports released at Davos from the World Economic Forum and its partners. “The future of economy” was the most mentioned topic on Wednesday, covered by the media with 815 articles. This is a result of the release of the Global Risks Report 2020, which lists the top global risks and describes the major environmental, ocean and climate risks that pose a threat to the economy.

Oxfam also released its Time to Care report this week, which suggests the world’s richest 2,153 people controlled more money than the poorest 4.6 billion combined in 2019. As a result, Oxfam International was one of the most retweeted influencers on Wednesday.

As the meeting enters its final hours, will the conversation continue to centre on climate, gender equality, geopolitics and global risks? Remaining sessions will focus on breaking free from single-use plastics, being out and equal, the global economic outlook and leadership lessons from growing sustainable companies.

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