Annual Meeting of the New ChampionsWith Dalian as the backdrop, 75 Global Shapers, 23 Social Entrepreneurs and 85 Young Global Leaders came together at the Annual Meeting of New Champions to lead new thinking on the Fourth Industrial Revolution and accelerate human-centered technology and innovations.

3 Tribes, 1 Community: Building Bonds for Transformative Impact

Global Shapers, Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneurs and Young Global Leaders (YGLs) explored connectivity and collaborations through an interactive session focused on leveraging data, innovation and storytelling. Community members shared reflections on how they enhanced their impact through cross-community action and Global Shaper Vyacheslav Polonski from the Oxford Hub presented a social network analysis to share data-driven insights on the current status of cross-community connections.

This was followed by a series of activities to build bonds and identify new opportunities for collaborative impact between community members. Seven participants also led breakout discussions on a range of topics – from how science

can be used to measure social impact to exploring how the three communities can contribute to China’s One Belt, One Road Initiative. The session ended with strong energy and enthusiasm to continue to explore ways that Global Shapers, Social Entrepreneurs and YGLs can work together to improve the state of the world.

Learning about the Forum’s Future with Professor Schwab

Professor Schwab engaged a group of Global Shapers, Social Entrepreneurs and YGLs to elicit their inputs on the strategic direction of the World Economic Forum. Professor Schwab shared his ideas on the future of the Forum, touching on issues related to a more digital future, the Centre of the Fourth Industrial Revolution in San Francisco and the increasing importance of giving next-generation leaders a seat at the table. Community members deeply

appreciated the opportunity for two-way dialogue with Professor Schwab and are eager to contribute to the Forum’s important role of improving the state of the world through collaborative action.

Preparing Global Shapers for the foremost global gathering on science, technology and innovation

Global Shapers from around the world began their journey at the Annual Meeting of the New Champions with a gathering focused on strengthening bonds, sharing experiences and… simply enjoying time together. As this was the first World Economic Forum summit for many, an overview was provided by Forum staff and fellow Global Shapers on the institution’s mission, key areas of focus and the AMNC – the foremost global gathering on science, technology

and innovation. Global Shapers also presented Hub Projects, best practices and ideas on how they can contribute to their local communities using the global perspectives gained from this meeting.

Participants were also encouraged to be active on various social media platforms and share the knowledge and insights they discovered during the meeting with the wider world. Overall, this session set the stage for Global Shapers to truly understand the global, multi-stakeholder community of the Forum and the actors involved in global issues and systems.

Global Shapers Vision 2030

Mobility, consumption, relationships and governance – these were the fields that the 2016 Global Shapers Annual Survey highlighted as areas that would face the greatest changes in coming decades. During this interactive session, Global Shapers drafted media headlines from the year 2030 to spark discussion, debate and dialogue on the future of our world. Conversations culminated in key

messages that Global Shapers agreed all world leaders must hear. For example: “We cannot neglect the adverse effects of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, lest we find ourselves woefully progressively regressing.” These messages were amplified on social media throughout the summit to promote the voices of young people on the global stage. Follow @GlobalShapers for more insights.

Global Shapers Meet with Jacques Pellet

13 Global Shapers met with Jacques Pellet, President of the Special Envoy of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on China Affairs, to explore ways to strengthen the ICRC’s role in the country. Global Shapers shared insights on how to attract young people to join the organization and pursue careers in the humanitarian field. Participants also exchanged innovative solutions to humanitarian challenges, including technological and social media innovations, and shared best practices to establish public-private partnerships.

Global Shapers Reflection Session

Throughout AMNC, Global Shapers had unique opportunities to share the insights and perspectives of young people with all participants and indeed contribute to the theme of “Achieving Inclusive Growth in the Fourth Industrial Revolution”. This final session brought Global Shapers back together for the last time to reflect on their experiences and share their hopes, fears and expectations pre- and post-event.

From their testimonials, it is clear that Global Shapers value their role as positive disruptors on a range of critical issues and will return to their Hubs with renewed energy and enhanced knowledge that will increase the capacity of their Hubs to have positive impact locally. In this session, we also discovered multiple cross-community collaborations that were launched this week, including a Global Shaper/YGL-led initiative to empower Afghan women in the academic disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Young Global Leaders Dinner

Turning dinner on its head, YGLs split courses between community members, which resulted in many new connections, particularly among the Class of 2017. Discussion questions for each course were designed to intensify the depth of conversations as the dinner progressed and Jeffersonian-style table conversations helped to create an environment for inclusive and purpose-driven interactions.

Social Entrepreneurs Dinner

We often listen to success stories without knowledge of the context and the behind-the-scences challenges that had to be tackled in order to succeed. This dinner was designed as a series of small group discussions for Social Entrepreneurs to not only share their success stories, but also their failures and comebacks. These personal development discussions touched on topics such as handling failure and work- life balance, building trust as systems entrepreneurs; managing risk as social entrepreneurs; navigating professional transitions; and leading a social enterprise in the age of technological disruption.