GES 2011: Participants’ First Impressions and Expectations

Written by Corina Murafa on October 5, 2011.

“Our current system of multilateral governance has proven to lack the needed scope, effectiveness and foresight”, said Gunter Thielen, CEO and Chairman of the Bertelsmann Stiftung. As a result, progressive global leaders from business, politics, civil society and administration have gathered this October in Kiel, at the fourth edition of the Global Economic Symposium. GES 2011 is a solution-oriented forum for addressing global challenges, from climate change to financial crises.

In their welcome addresses, the hosts of the symposium, representing the Bertelsmann Foundation, the government of Schleswig-Holstein (the German province hosting the event), and the Kiel Institute for the World Economy underlined the need for a fundamental rethinking of the institutions that shape globalization. An increasingly disconnected global polity clashes with and increasingly connected global economy. Integrated economics meets divided politics/ polities. Unfortunately, neither nation states nor hard multilateral governance venues seem capable of finding solutions to the global food and resource crisis, the demographic crisis, the debt crisis, the banking crisis and to increasing global inequality.

What did GES 2011 participants think of the symposium’s opening? What are their expectations from the next 48 hours, 50+ panels, roundtables, workshops, and labs? Join us online via Future Challenges and the Virtual GES in an exciting solution-focused journey!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie2H1SNTCWA

Corina Murafa

Corina Murafa holds a Master in Public Policy, with a focus on economic policy and European governance, from the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin. An energy expert, Corina's current work in Romania was preceded by stints with the United Nations Development Programme, Deloitte Consulting, and with the Romanian Academic Society. She is a former Open Society Institute fellow (New York) and is currently an associate fellow for the Aspen Institute Romania, where she acts as elected Chairperson of the alumni network.