The Super-Awesome YouTube Room At Davos
Michael Arrington
36 comments »
The World Economic Forum at Davos: 3,000 or so world leaders, celebrities and top CEOs (and a couple of bloggers) gather to discuss the major issues of the day.
At one end of the Congress Center is the main meeting hall. At another, private meeting rooms for the super-VIPs. And nestled right in the middle is the YouTube room.
Actually it isn’t called the YouTube room because there is no branding at Davos except for the WEF. But Google is a major partner to the conference, and this year the WEF added a new feature to reach out to attendees as well as non-attendees - the Davos Question. An entire room has been dedicated to this - five computers line the wall, all pointing to YouTube, where attendees can answer the question.
Between sessions this is clearly the place to be. Every few minutes another celebrity or leader walks through to leave a Davos Question response or go to a private meeting in the rooms beyond. The security detail comes first, giving everyone notice that someone interesting is coming. Then the person him/herself and their entourage.
Bono has been by twice. Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf came by so many times that people stopped noticing (he was in the background of this CNN report, I had to point him out to get the cameras to pan over). Rupert Murdoch strolled in, as did Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai (recording his YouTube video), UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and former PM Tony Blair, Howard Dean, Michael Dell, Eric Schmidt, Sergey Brin, Chad Hurley, Henry Kissinger and Shimon Peres (the winner of the most intimidating-looking security detail at Davos). All stopped politely for interviews and photos with Forbes, CNN and others (here I am with Peres and Brin, here’s Robert Scoble interviewing Michael Dell).
The entire Forbes team has camped out here for the duration of the event, and editor Carl Lavin wrote his own thoughts about this being the power center of the event. As I sit here now there are no less than four camera crews and a score of journalists milling around.
It didn’t take me long to find the YouTube room, and I’ve spent more time here than anywhere else. This conference is exceptional, and this room is the center of it all. Brilliant move, Google.
Nice coverage..
Michael - where is your response?
Excellent coverage - thanks. It is incredible just watching the videos come in - I can imagine it is unbelievable being there.
great experience for you
yupnup.com
yupnup.com
yupnup.com
Friend what is the major issue according to you?
http://tekno-world.blogspot.com
Wow cool man.
Muddabir
http://www.xperts.net.pk
would not be surprised if some of the most intelligent advice in Davos comes from common-man youtube videos
would be highly surprised if anybody important would change their mind about anything
I knew it was going to be a huge hit!
http://technoq.blogspot.com
///Between sessions this is clearly the place to be. Every few minutes another celebrity or leader walks through to leave a Davos Question response or go to a private meeting in the rooms beyond.
Herein lies the flaw. Considering that EVERYONE will be affected by major catastrophes, why does a celebrity or leader feel the need to go to a private room after leaving an answer?
And what makes THEM any more knowledgeable than anyone else. If getting answers to extremely urgent world problems where THIS easy there would NOT be any problems and all of these uniquely wise people would not wait until some high profile event to ‘ help save the world’.
Also, considering how the entire planet will be affected and how mankind could be affected - would you NOT want the entire event to be carried live on every major media outlet??????
And why should ANSWERS be limited to videos? A brilliant answer is a brilliant answer - if someone has the unique power to help mankind - for God’s sake get the answer any way you can!.
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damn am I jealous.
envy ++
more like this please.
OK, so there are famous people at Davos. What exactly is the point of this story?
#2, here is the link to Mike’s response -
http://youtube.com/watch?v=F5duH7uMHaY
You can also see Mr.Scoble misusing the resources
It was interesting to see Afghan President Karzai showing up. No doubt Afghanistan’s role in flooding world heroin markets is a legitimate economic question worthy of discussion.
Very interesting! Keep on rolling!
Damn Micheal Arrington taller than any genius entrepenurers & brainy politicans. What did you eat, mike?
Man, Hamid and Henry in the same room.
They probably both asked for Bono’s `graph.
Amazing to see just how Youtube has become such an important medium.
r
http://www.allroadsleadtochina.com
http://www.china-crossroads.com
how tall or small is sergey? looks like your about to eat him.
Great buzz for the Super Elites now you should watch Aaron Russo - best known for Producer of Trading Places starring Eddy Murphy - on Google Video about the Elites’ Ultimate Goal by searching “aaron russo elite goal”
http://video.google.fr/videopl.....8215075609
What a completely useless conference. “Rich people amuse themselves…”
Must be cool hanging out with the army general who seized power in Pakistan. We used to call them military dictators - now we like to breakfast with them. Well, Scoble, Zuckerberg and Arrington do. Breakfast of the dictators - what does that say about you?
Hey Michael,
All that fretting to get my video in was worth it; Emma Thompson gave an answer to my video!
See:
http://zennie2005.blogspot.com.....to-my.html
Man Micheal …I hate to say it but you look like shit. Don’t pull an Om on us….
That’s truly inspiring to see! Thanks so much for the inside peak….
These are about the most useless conferences there are.
Nice, a winter junket on tax dollars so a bunch of authoritarians can argue about how much and by what method the little guy will be screwed.
What exactly does “exceptional” conference mean? Or, is that just a way of making sure you get an invite to the event next year, too? “Exceptional” conference?
Yes, what, again, was the POINT of this story? There are famous people in Davos? That YouTube and Google are undertaking significant PR efforts at the event? That famous people have bodyguards that precede their entrance? There is a point, right? A theme? Some observation? Something? Anything?
is Veronica Belmont in Davos?
Well said #20!
@getitright,
…..and Ivan Pope’s been involved in the internet longer than most of the people that gogle got to davos.
Wowee. So many influential figures in one room. Nice.
great to see this….
good post 20
john, owner
vanguardsf.net
Looks great. Aslso read the Breakfast with Zuckerberg story. They also like it.