Optimism and and Unease at Asia’s ‘Davos’

I spent the week among 1,600 business leaders, scientists and technologists in Tianjin, China, a sprawling city of 14 million people and endless concrete skyscrapers. 

The occasion was the World Economic Forum’s “Summer Davos,” a smaller version of world leader confab focused on science and technology; my tasks included moderating an evening with the Technology Pioneers—companies awarded for their technology breakthroughs—but my main goal was to absorb as much as I could about how participants were thinking about the future.

The event ranged across a broad variety of topics, from robots to the future of food, but I was struck by how many of the discussions converged on similar themes. (You can check out recordings of some of the sessions at weforum.org.) Here are a few observations: