Business forum seeks Irish input

A student-run alternative to Davos that regularly attracts the world's best-known business leaders is hoping to increase Irish business participation this year.

The 33-year-old conference will feature HP chief executive officer Ms Carly Fiorina, former IBM CEO Mr Lou Gerstner, Coca-Cola chairman and CEO Mr Douglas Daft, Sony chairman and CEO Mr Nobuyuki Idei, Goldman Sachs vice-chairman Lord Griffiths, Xerox chairwoman and CEO Ms Anne Mulcahy, and 33 other business, media and political luminaries.

They will present keynotes talks and conduct more informal "leadership sessions" during the three- day International Students' Committee St Gallen Symposium, which runs from May 22nd-24th.

Organised entirely by students at Switzerland's business-oriented University of St Gallen, the conference is unusual in that it mixes an audience of students with senior-level participants from the business and political worlds.

"The symposium was a peaceful response to the student uprisings in Europe in 1969," according to Mr Fabian Klinz, the St Gallen student liaison for the event for the Republic and Britain. "The students were looking for a peaceful way of discussing the things on people's minds."

The event, which is very well-known in the Germanic countries, now draws about 650 business participants from 50 countries, and 250 students, who are awarded spaces by an essay competition. However, Irish and British representation in the past has been relatively low.

Mr Klinz has been making regular visits to the State to talk to Irish businesses, hoping more will send an executive to the all English-language event. Only one representative per organisation is allowed and he or she must be at senior executive level.

Participants hear keynote talks each morning, followed by a group lunch and breakout leadership sessions. Several informal social events are also arranged for delegates. Talks and sessions all relate to a chosen theme, which this year is "Seeking responses in times of uncertainty".

The conference is supported by participant fees and a circle of benefactors that can offer financial backing but are primarily valued for advice and help in planning and running the event.

Each year the student team spends nine months organising the conference, raising funds, talking to the media, organising the essay award and organising the symposium itself - everything from catering to sound systems, said Mr Klinz. He believes the student participation marks out the conference and helps spark lively debate in the leadership sessions. "Often the students ask the really difficult questions, but the questions that matter."

One of the few Irish past-participants, Iona co-founder and chairman Dr Chris Horn, presented a leadership session on the strength of the US software industry last year. Irish companies that want to build up contacts, particularly in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, would find the conference rewarding, he said.

More information can be obtained from +41 (0)71 227 2020, or at www.isc-symposium.org.