Reflections from the New Champions Meeting Dalian

By Mel Young, President and Chief Executive Officer, The Homeless World Cup, United Kingdom.

I am on my way home now after a very stimulating New Champions World Economic Forum meeting in Dalian.

The backdrop of the conference was dominated by “doom and gloom” around the global economy which contrasted the astonishing transformation of China where the meeting was being held.

Indeed, at the very opening address, the Premier of China, Wen Jiaboa said China might consider bailing out the Eurozone if they were asked. As you might imagine, this caused quite a stir. It simply illustrated, if an illustration was needed, just how much the world has changed in a very short space of time. If you had suggested such an idea say five years ago, then you’d have been laughed out of court! Premier Wen Jiaboa, reeled off statistic after statistic about China’s continued growth and its impact on his country. The rate and size of change in China is staggering.

Political leadership came in for a bit of a hammering throughout the three day event. In a plenary session on Friday, Gordon Brown, the former UK Prime Minister, warned that unless political leaders came together to agree a global economic plan then he feared that the world faced the possibility of ten years of zero growth. He believed that the economic problems could be solved quickly if there was a plan and he warned that policies of protectionism and national introversion would lead to stagnation.

Many delegates worried that democracies appeared politically deadlocked while the economies nosedived. The USA was often cited as an example where the political parties were neutralising any national economic recovery plan. “They talk while Rome burns,” was one comment I heard.

However, throughout the three days, there were many positive and constructive discussions.  The role of entrepreneurs and technology pioneers were seen as vital for the immediate future and there were a number of constructive discussions. A fusion of entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs who shared the same DNA was seen by some as an exciting possibility.  It was better to do business in good world rather than a bad world was the theme. There should be less greed, frugal innovation and businesses which created wealth and which were socially and environmentally inclusive at the same time.

An interesting development for the meeting was the inclusion of a new group called the Global Shapers. They were youngsters between the age of 20 and 30 who were already being marked out as leaders. They added a new level of energy and enthusiasm into the proceedings. Add this to this to the high energy level already in evidence from such groups as the Young Global Leaders, Technology Pioneers, Young Scientists and of course Social Entrepreneurs and you create an optimistic atmosphere which counter-balances the global economic forecasts.

This is what makes the World Economic Forum so unique. It is an excellent way of creating new paradigms with some of the best talent around. You only need to look at China to realise what is possible. The challenge now is make these new paradigms become a practical reality – and quickly