A Jordanian Perspective

I arrived at the lowest point on earth on Friday at 14.00 and left Sunday evening. It was my first experience participating in a World Economic Forum event. My first observation was that this would be a very organized event and it would be big.

I was right.

Besides the fact that you run into politicians and public figures all the time, it was more interesting to meet people who are policy-makers and shapers in the business market. I met several CEOs from leading telecommunication firms: Yahoo, Microsoft, Google, Cisco and many more. It was a great networking opportunity.

I was so pleased to meet two people: Sarah Leah from Human Rights Watch and the Peace Activist Ronit Avni, the producer of the short movie Budrus.

On Friday, I was part of a closed session to discuss “Building Media Institutions After the Revolution”, led by the respectful Samia Nakhoul from Reuters. I was disappointed that we spent two hours discussing how the world needs to regulate social media, a strong request by traditional media agencies and reporters. On the other hand, it was a very interesting opportunity to note the perspective of traditional media towards social media and bloggers. I was also part of the panel in an official session on the Future of Social Media, and it was a great session led by a very respectful journalist, Mina Al Oraibi.

The most enlightening session was the one focusing on education. The panellists addressed the employment challenge in the Middle East. The session focused on delivering jobs critically needed in the immediate future while ensuring quality and long-term positive impact.

I was hoping to see the local community at the Dead Sea heavily involved during the event. But it wasn’t. If we were there to tackle unemployment, then we should have had the local community showcase its products during the Meeting. It could have been a way to support them. I hope that, next time, the Forum will focus on that.

I liked that I saw some youth participating in the Meeting. It is a good step to involve a segment that represents 60% of the world’s population. I urge the World Economic Forum to focus on this segment and maybe have a special event called “World Economic Forum Youth”, where we engage more youth from the Arab world.

The highlight of the event was meeting in person and for the first time His Majesty King Abdullah of Jordan, and having a short five-minute talk. I also met with Her Majesty Queen Rania, and we spoke about the role of youth in social media and how it is important to encourage social change through education. The short discussions I had gave me an idea of creating a new initiative called CitizenJo on Twitter (@Citizen_Jo), where Jordanians share short, positive stories they have every day. This is another way to battle the negative stereotypes we currently have on line.

I’m looking forward to be part of the next Forum event!

*Ali Dahmash is a social activist, founder and GM of REACH 2.0 and UnderMyOliveTree and is attending the World Economic Forum Special Meeting on Economic Growth and Job Creation.