With the increasing problem of climate change a major issue for this year’s conference, it is hard to ignore the hypocrisy of the Davos set-up.
Technologically, we are now at a stage where we can hold highly productive and interactive web-meetings from anywhere in the world, while at the same time significantly reducing travel cost and time — and damage to the environment.
It is, of course, true that there are many occasions where there is a need to meet face to face.
However, at the expense of a few runs down the slopes, our political and business leaders need to take seriously the option of working together from a distance, rather than causing further harm to the environment and economy.
Bert van der Zwan
vice-president, EMEA
WebEx Communications
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Creative future: You highlighted the battle between Frank Lowe and Interpublic in the advertising industry (Business, last week). This is a clash of the titans but, as you hinted, the really interesting skirmishes are taking place in the new, multi-channel world.
Television advertising is changing fast, with the proliferation of channels diffusing the “big bang” effect for blockbuster brands, but also making TV accessible to a swathe of unlikely entrants. Meanwhile, the internet offers untold and dazzling opportunities to target consumers. And innovations continue to create excitement from in-store marketing to ambient media, from sampling to new packaging design.
It is ad agencies (and businesses generally) that can deliver a hybrid of old and new that hold the future. And the future is not about locking horns with dinosaurs. You have to be creative to survive.
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Creativity comes from the cross-fertilisation of experiences — something we’re good at in Britain and need to push up the agenda if we are to prosper. Fusion is the future.
Charlie Hoult
chief executive, Loewy
London
Best of Backchat: Last week, launching our online Backchat feature, we asked readers, “Are we becoming a nation of foodies?” Among the comments posted at www.timesonline.co.uk/backchat, was the following.
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HOPEFULLY, more and more people will be concerned with improving their nutrition and become correctly informed on the subject.
The alternative scenario is that the rate of increase in obesity, diabetes, cancers and so on, will continue to accelerate and, within the next decade or so, the National Health Service will simply cease to cope with the consequences.
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David Tucker