In his conference-opening speech, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made it clear that the 51st St. Gallen Symposium convened its global, cross-generational platform at a crucial moment in history. He ended his remarks with a plea for global cooperation: “This event is taking place at a moment when democracy is threatened around the world,” he told participants. “We need to do more than just talk; we need to do more than just listen. We need to work together.”

Working together—but how, and under what conditions? This focal question was raised in light of this year’s theme “Collaborative Advantage” across 48 panel debates, roundtables and workshops, involving more than 120 speakers and about 1,000 participants from three generations of leaders across business, policy, civil society and academia. For the first time in three years, the St. Gallen Symposium gathered its global community in person – linking debates in St. Gallen with three hubs at Swiss Embassies in Beijing, Mexico City and Johannesburg.

The implications of the Russian invasion and effective ways to support Ukraine took centre stage at this year’s symposium. Swiss President Ignazio Cassis and Austrian Minister for EU and the Constitution Karoline Edtstadler re-examined the role of Europe’s neutral states in times of war. “In times of crisis, we have to join forces and stand together”, President Cassis said. That, he said, is why Switzerland adopted sanctions against the Kremlin and Russia. However, joining NATO and active participation in the war were incompatible with Swiss neutrality.

Ukrainian Parliamentarian Lisa Yasko challenged the idea that the international community and NATO were doing enough to support Ukraine. In a discussion with Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, 4th President of Croatia and Benedikt Franke, CEO of the Munich Security Conference, the young politician criticised “the timing of the support and the amount of the support” as too late, but voiced gratitude and appreciation for the current level of assistance to Ukraine. She also called on Europe to not lose sight of larger issues at hand: “The future of Ukraine is very much linked to the situation in other countries”, she said, drawing attention to the fragile security situations of Poland, Moldova and Georgia, for instance.

In this spirit of looking beyond immediate developments, discussions tried to make sense of the numerous ways the war on Ukraine will reconfigure our world in the coming years and for the next generation. Kühne Holding Executive Chair Karl Gernandt, Botswanan economist and politician Bogolo Kenewendo, and Lufthansa Cargo CEO Dorothea von Boxberg explored ways to make global supply chains more resilient. Shell CEO Ben van Beurden and Vestas Wind Systems EVP Kerstin Knapp focused on the European energy infrastructure necessary to ensure energy security while accelerating the green energy transition across the continent. USAID Assistant Administrator Marcela Escobari and former UNWOMEN Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka called for a more collaborative response to global refugee movements and a looming food security crisis. And journalist and 2021 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa and Reporters Without Borders head Christophe Deloire emphasised the role of free media in light of rising authoritarianism around the world.

In light of the St. Gallen Symposium’s mission of fostering leadership with the next generation in mind, intergenerational fairness was a key focus of this year’s dialogue. On Friday, 6 May, Friedrich Merz, Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) of Germany, Mamphela Ramphele, Co-President of the Club of Rome, and Claudia Plakolm, Austrian State Secretary for Youth, outlined ways to rethink and remake the generational contract.

Speaking with Indian Member of Parliament and former UN Under-Secretary Shashi Tharoor, Ugandan climate advocate Vanessa Nakate drew attention to the losses and damages already incurred by climate change, particularly for young people in the global South. Moreover, in the spirit of our most recent White Paper on cross-generational teams, selected sessions presented our NextGen Value Creation Barometer (partnering with EQx) and the Voices of the Leaders of Tomorrow Report 2022 (partnering with NIM). Panels also explored how organisations can harness age diversity and which new financing models best support the next generation of entrepreneurs.

As a key innovation of this year’s symposium, a Cross-Generational Transformation Lab saw symposium participants move to the newly opened HSG SQUARE on 6 May to co-create and debate. A session with ZEIT ONLINE engaged participants in one-on-one dialogues on controversial questions, while five parallel workshops with Zukunft-Fabrik.2050 developed tangible proposals for greater intergenerational fairness. The Transformation Lab launched a multi-year initiative to raise awareness, develop cross-generational ambitions and drive actions for a New Generational Contract, co-initiated with the Club of Rome.

The 51st St. Gallen Symposium marked the highlight of an in-depth exploration of its annual theme “Collaborative Advantage”, which was launched in September 2021 in Berlin. Driven by a team of 33 students from the University of St. Gallen, year-round formats such as the Global Leadership Challenge, with the University of Oxford, and global receptions gathered input and inspiration for the main symposium this May. Of course, the dialogue will not end with the 51st St. Gallen Symposium: Concrete initiatives and projects will be developed and followed up on throughout the summer, all with a view to our mission: Lead with the next generation in mind.

A New Generational Contract

Partnering with the Club of Rome, the 51st St. Gallen Symposium launched a new, global initiative for greater intergenerational fairness and ambitions: “A New Generational Contract.” At the symposium, a booth collected hundreds of signatures in support of using our Cross-Generational platform to foster dialogue and actions which put intergenerational fairness firmly at the centre of decisions taken during “our time”. A Cross-generational Transformation Lab developed concrete project ideas, which we will follow-up on and introduce back to our community in the coming months.