Last week I took part of the Latin America World Economic Forum, the Latin-American meeting carried out by the WEF foundation, which once a year organizes the most important business meeting in the world in Davos, Switzerland. This time the Latin America World Economic Forum took place in Rio de Janeiro, from April 14 to April 16.
In contrast to WEF Davos, which took place in February and reflected a rather pessimistic environment, in WEF Rio the perception was much more positive. On the one hand, there is some kind of realism regarding the economic and financial difficulties that the markets are facing, but at the same time there is a strong conviction that, after going through these hard times, there will be some light at the end of the tunnel. In this context, we –the underdeveloped countries- are the ones to be in charge of the situation and be the engines to support the leading countries to recover themselves. Latin America is part of the solution, and this was the interpretation made by all the attendees to the forum. According to the experts’ explanation, the crisis has not impacted so badly in Latin-American countries due to the lack of a developed credit system, and that is what gives us a good position towards other markets. Personally, beyond this generalized optimism, I think it will be really hard to overcome this crisis, which will make history and bring big consequences in the international market dynamics.
On the other hand, Latin America has a huge social debt. In fact, one of the outstanding conclusions reached in the forum was to help and boost the low income sectors to foster consumption in that sector and inject the economy in that way as well.
Another key point was that the antagonism that divided the region in the past years was the concept Left versus Right. Today, the opposites Democracy versus Despotism are clearly dividing the region into two big groups. Obviously, this could result in a high risk of suffering political tyranny.
Facing this scenario, social networks play a key part, not only in the redefinition of the traditional media business model, but also in the transparency they bring to the election processes and the consolidation of democracy, giving the citizens and their opinions a main role. Through a social network like Sonico, the community can interact directly with politicians and have an open dialogue with them, as well as express itself freely through a social communication platform of global reach, and reinforce the bases of the democratic system.
Finally, another topic that was treated in the forum was the support that all the countries in the region must give to the integration policies, and the need to avoid falling into extreme protectionist measures to overcome the difficulties.
In my personal view, the participation in WEF Rio was quite interesting and positive. The Forum was characterized by an atmosphere of cordiality and respect, the panels were very well planned, and the organization of the whole event was perfect, at the proper time and in the proper form. The attendees were willing to dialogue and this created a relaxed environment and the possibility to share good experiences.
In every global crisis there is always a chance to get stronger, and this is what we could take from the forum. Definitely, this meeting was very useful to generate synergy and create a common vision of how all the regions –integrated- can learn and grow from this challenge.
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Last week we attended ad:tech New York, the most important online advertising workshop, and the most relevant of the 9 events which are organized annually by the company in different cities. The event took place at the Jacob K. Javits Center. The stands were all on the same floor, so no going upstairs this time. In an austere environment we realized that the online advertising industry knew how to adapt itself to the global economic crisis.