Emerging Technology Trends To Be Presented in Davos

Emerging Technologies Investment Meeting is set to kick off in Davos during the business gathering on January 25th. A few dozens of visionaries and companies creating innovative environment for institutions, industries and entire nations will present their projects.

Among the emerging technology trends that will help to solve some of the most complex problems are the following:

Portable solar energy to tackle poverty

Kenneth Winther and Dmitry Suschov, the investors in Moonwalk, a fund that targets grand challenges of our time, will explain how portable solar energy can tackle poverty and provide access to energy to all the people in the emerging markets.

Pawa Technologies, a portfolio company of Moonwalk, is the world’s first off-grid power ecosystem with its versatile, pocket size solar chargeable power platform — a power carrier that gives people access to electricity for charging phones, power light, etc.

It was tailored specifically for Sub-Saharan Africans, who spend hundreds of dollars and thousands of hours each year to power their businesses, light their homes, tune in their radios, and charge their mobile phones.

Kenneth Winther: “Pawa solar charges have helped to democratise energy, so people can work themselves out of poverty. For African people Pawa is free energy to generate income. It differs from other offerings with its free energy from a mobile, personal and modular system that is water-resistant, durable and fool proof.”

Transformable architecture in cities of future

Boris Bernaskoni, the founder of BERNASKONI bureau, an award-winning architect, a three-time participant of Venice Biennale of Architecture and the author of Russia’s first presidential center, Yeltsin Center, will present Hypercube, the first transformable building, raised outside Moscow that exists not only in the dimension of space, but also in the dimension of time and communication. The building’s flexible façade and interior space can be transformed in time. Concrete exo-frame allows to update the façade. Interior space can be easily transformed according to the function of the building. Initially open public building can change its function and become a closed technology campus or an office blocks of resident companies.

Boris Bernaskoni: “Hypercube is about layers of hardware and software. The hardware is the skeleton: an exoskeleton, which is the changeable façade, and the internal skeleton parts. Contemporary façade age within 30–40 years, but functions age even faster. The software is the internal structure, designed to allow easy transformations during the building’s lifespan.”

Blockchain technologies for business optimisation

The disruptive nature of blockchain with its ability to move control over interactions from centralized systems to distributed users gains momentum in variety of industries within heavily regulated environments.

Alexey Arkhipov, the Head of QIWI Blockchain Technology (QBT), will talk through several projects on business optimisation. Workinize, a blockchain-based system, developed for large complex businesses, allows to quickly adapt the company’s structure and employees’ duties as the system profoundly analyses workload, employees’ personal and professional priorities and their relation to the company’s strategic goals.

Another project on blockchain platform is made to mitigate supply chain fraud and waste in oil and gas companies. System, tested by one of Russia’s largest oil and gas company, has demonstrated that it can successfully detect and mitigate fraudulent activity as the oil and gas products move all the way from the source to end users.

Alexey Arkhipov: “More and more companies look to blockchain as a technology solution for increasing transparency. With more data and visibility received through Workinize, decisions are better, companies are more efficient. The same applies to blockchain-driven supply chain management system that is a game-changer for a vast range of companies. Our system that has already been beta tested by one of the leading oil and gas producers, will be further adapted for use in more complex industries.”

Citizen Development

David Solomon, the CEO of Blueprints, an investment platform dedicated to disrupting economic development by delivering an equitable 50:50 model, through equitable assets and peer to peer technology, will talk through a growing trend of citizen development and individual collectivism.

The global economy is increasingly polarised by inequitable economic development and a period of great upheaval is emerging as an inevitable reaction. To solve this Blueprints is establishing 50:50 economic development and revolutionising a Peer to Peer Technology to achieve “Individual Collectivism”.

David Solomon: “How do we get millions of citizens globally to have an equitable share of their own economies? We start in developing economies which have been denied an equitable share, despite the GDP of emerging/developing economies being $33.52 trillion (IMF). We show how social good and investment returns are correlated at scale, through our very simple ABC model of aligning Assets to Blueprints to Capital.”

Building bridge between crypto and institutional world

Stephen Kelso, the Head of Galaxy Digital Europe, a diversified merchant bank dedicated to digital assets and blockchain technology industry, will speak about EmTech investment megatrends.

Stephen Kelso: “Blockchain technology as ‘Internet 3.0’ will herald even greater change to the ways of life and business than the first two evolutions. The transfer of digital wealth and the smart-contract disintermediation across all walks of life and industry sectors will radically change society further and reduce the disparity between developed and emerging markets. Big data and AI will rapidly be commercialized beyond advertising and passive investment management where the focus has been to date.”

Marc P. Bernegger, a Board Member of Crypto Finance Group (Switzerland) that is building a bridge between the traditional financial world and the emerging digital asset market with crypto asset management, trading, and storage infrastructure, will explain how all market participants will benefit from professional, secure, and stable access to digital asset markets.

Marc P. Bernegger: “This is the next wave of digitisation, and the impact of digital asset companies on people’s day-to-day lives will be comparable to that of the internet. This technology will open up a high-speed infrastructure for assets, with a new asset class and new investment instruments.”

Social impact of Blockchain

Ramesh Ramadoss, Co-Chair of IEEE Blockchain Initiative The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is the world’s largest professional organisation with a mission to advance technology for the benefit of humanity. IEEE is a global non-profit community with 420,000 members in 160 countries. IEEE is at the forefront of emerging technologies through its new initiatives such as Blockchain.

Ramesh Ramadoss: “IEEE Blockchain falls part of a number of global initiatives focused on community development, outreach and education, serving as a forum for interdisciplinary exchange and collaboration. During Davos the IEEE Swiss Blockchain group will launch with a welcoming reception on the topic of social impact of Blockchain and how the technology can address society’s challenges.”

Machine learning and AI for business

Vladimir Novitskiy, Co-founder of GoWeb, a producer of computing equipment and a provider of cloud calculation services, will explain how there is an ever growing demand for new computing power.

Using the experienced gained in designing special-purpose computing equipment for mathematical computations, GoWeb created computing centers fitted with equipment capable of implementing machine learning and modeling of neural networks, as well as leveraging free resources in other sectors for optimum computer capacity utilization.

Vladimir Novitskiy: “AI will and already is revolutionising the way businesses are ran around the globe by cutting costs and increasing profits by accurate analysis of data. GoWeb is an efficient and rapidly growing business with a successful history, customers and partners. We provide an ability to practice running and adapting AI into businesses, at a cheaper rate than competitors, so AI can become more accessible to more people around the world.”

What do you think about emerging technology trends in 2019?