The Open Forum Comes of Age with a Focus on Youth

 As part of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2020, this year’s Open Forum Davos will focus on youth and their will for change, as well as digital safety, breaking with traditional sexual and gender roles, and more.

For the first time this year, the Forum will be joined by a group of teenage change-makers who will participate in the Open Forum and offer their perspectives in sessions of the official programme of the Annual Meeting.

Autumn Peltier, a 15-year-old Canadian activist fighting to raise awareness of the water crisis and for the rights of indigenous people, and Melati Wijsen, 19, who launched large-scale beach clean-up campaigns and advocates for plastic-free societies are among these young change-makers.

Also present at the Open Forum is Naomi Wadler, 13, who will join a conversation with musician will.i.am on the fight to end gun violence and speak on how youth are influencing policy and inspiring the next generation. Swiss Youth Delegate to the United Nations, Maxime Crettex, will participate and Berengere Fouqueray, a student at the International School of Zug and Lucerne, will moderate a panel.

Also at the Open Forum, internationally renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma, a 2008 Crystal award winner and Member of the World Economic Forum's Board of Trustees, will perform Bach’s Suite for Solo Cello No.1. Coming in the midst of his Bach Project, a journey to perform the cello suites in 36 locations on six continents, Yo-Yo Ma offers these gifts of music to inspire a conversation about how culture helps us to seek truth, build trust and act in service of one another. He will also perform six pop-up concerts – one for each of J.S. Bach’s six suites for solo cello – at the Annual Meeting.

The Open Forum Davos, now in its 18th year, will open its doors to the public from 21 to 24 January in Davos, Switzerland. Leading personalities from business, government, academia and civil society, as well as young people, will discuss and interact with the Swiss public on critical – and, at times, controversial – subjects, opening a unique window into some of the world’s most challenging debates.