I’ve been despatched by the EMENA board (that’s Europe, Middle East, North Africa for short) to the alpine town of Davos – perhaps most famous for the World Economic Forum – but I am in fact here to attend its relative namesake: The World Communication Forum.
It is in its fifth year and it brings together a truly diverse group of communicators from around the world. Tonight at the welcome reception I reckon I came across seven different nationalities in the first four minutes…
You can follow proceedings as they get underway via #WCFDavos.
It is a conference that is really looking into to the future of the field of communications – and to that end I’ve also lined up a couple of interviews for a bit of in-depth insight, including a few beyond the usual suspects.
So keep checking back to hear from people like Scott Fahlman who is working a the cutting edge of where artificial intelligence meets communication. If you’re not familiar with Scott Fahlman, then this bit from the internet archives of yonder should help explain:
19-Sep-82 11:44 Scott E. Fahlman 🙂
From: Scott E. Fahlman <Fahlman at Cmu-20c>
I propose that the following character sequence for joke markers:
🙂
Read it sideways. Actually, it is probably more economical to mark things that are NOT jokes, given current trends. For this, use
🙁
I’m also hoping to hear what’s new from IABCers attending – and I will of course also report back following my official duties here, which include participating in a rountable on the future of the intersect between agencies, associations and in-house communicators. I’m fairly sure there’ll be some useful insights for the work currently underway on the next IABC strategy. Here’s incidentally where that is at:
Meanwhile, if you’ve got any questions you’d like to have answered by the assembled experts here, drop me a line / ping me on Twitter.
🙂
Michael Ambjorn is board director @IABC – follow @michaelambjorn for more of the above.