Fifty people under the age of 30 from all over the world, including two South Africans, will participate in the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2016 in Davos in a bid to bring a millennial perspective to the agenda.
In a statement issued on Monday by the Global Shapers Community – a network of 454 city-based hubs led by young people working around the world – youth will be seeking to shape the outcomes at Davos in a conversation that explores local solutions to global issues by engaging stakeholders.
Among the topics these young people will explore include the creation of 75-million entrepreneurs, closing the generational gap in public service, re-imagining urban lifestyles and sustainable development.
According to the fifth annual Global Millennials survey, cited on Bloomberg last week, for which Deloitte reached out to nearly 7 700 working college-educated professionals in 29 countries, two-thirds of millennials plan to leave their current organization by 2020.
The Future of Jobs, a WEF survey of nine industries in 15 major economies including South Africa, also concluded that there is going to be a net loss of five-million jobs by 2020 due to disruption in technological, socioeconomic and demographic change impacting every industry and geographical region.
Goldman Sachs says that millennials are poised to reshape the economy because their unique experiences will change the way we buy and sell, forcing companies to examine how they do business for decades to come.