Global Risk Forum 448 & 449 – Bridging the Gap between Digital Noise and Social Reality: Political, Environmental and Economical Factors in Focus

With the Summer Solstice left behind for those living in the Northern Hemisphere, we are soon to enter the second month of a season that can best be described as tumultuous. Conflicts that were deemed ‘short-term’ at the beginning of this year are nowhere near finished and their repercussions are felt by everyone worldwide. Moreover, environmental issues can no longer be described as seasonal challenges, but embedded features of a broken global system that attempts to patch its critical failures rather than solve their root causes.

It can be argued that the lines between the screen and the street have never been more blurred, in light of the recent riots in Belfast, Northern Ireland, or the anti-government protests in Albania, in the Western Balkans. From geopolitical tremors to economic fault lines caused by critical supply chain blockages, the risks shaping our world are no longer confined to boardrooms. These risks — and especially the way regular citizens perceive them — are live-streamed, hashtagged and weaponized by various actors in the digital world, with consequences that are unmistakably physical.

Across the globe, the news published these past few weeks has laid bare this new reality. When political leaders post on their social media accounts that peace negotiations are going well, public perception shifts almost instantly. However, as was often said when the World Wide Web first went mainstream, what is posted on the internet cannot easily be scrubbed off. Contrasting declarations that change from hour to hour and from day to day become a jigsaw puzzle where timelines are difficult to follow and trust in the authorities sinks rapidly to new lows.

Come and share your thoughts on these pressing issues and more this, on Global Risk Forum 448 (Thursday, 25^th June at 16:00 BST / 11:00 EDT) & 449 (Friday, 26^th June at 11:00 BST), PLEASE NOTE THE TIME CHANGES THIS WEEK. We will tackle with the questions that no nation can answer alone: How do we govern a world where every crisis is globalized in seconds? And how do we build resilience when the next shock is already trending?

• Global Risk Forum 448
• Thursday, 25^th June at 16:00 BST / 11:00 EDT
• REGISTRATION >>

• Global Risk Forum 449
• Friday, 26^th June at 11:00 BST
• REGISTRATION >>