The fourth edition of the Misk Global Forum opened yesterday (Nov 14) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia with over 4,300 participants from 120 countries to discuss new trends and transformations sweeping the world of work.

Opening the event, Prince Ea, US spoken word artist, poet and rapper, appeared first by video then live on stage to tell the audience that, “the difference between success and fulfilment… is the same difference between an interest and a passion.”

As the day progressed, business leaders and innovators from a range of startups and global companies came together in panel discussions, to offer advice on factors crucial to success, helping prepare the young participants for the changes the future holds for the workspace, workforce and workflow.

In a panel entitled “100 Years is a long time! Preparing for Multiple shifts,” Simon Lowden, chief sustainability officer at PepsiCo explained that, “success is married with passion, and I’ve always held in my career the idea that I want to get involved in work that excites me as opposed to jobs that are there to be done…If you can marry passion with roles and organizations, then you’ll be successful and of course any business will be successful if individuals are successful.”

Heather VanCura, chairperson and director of Java Community Process at Oracle, emphasised the importance of gaining experience to longer lasting success: “Education is very important, but it’s still limited to certain criteria or a book or college - when you work and you experience and you meet people in the workforce, you gain experiences that you never got from a book

Andy Young, a technical director at Bjarke Ingels Group and Dara John Tawhidi, a partner at Foster + Partners, discussed how the workspace will inevitably change, but to better suit humans rather than AI as some have feared.

“The workplace of the future is dynamic, like our minds, like our bodies - It’s not static, it’s about encouraging collaboration but at the same time giving opportunities to work in a more focused way and to relax,” Tawhidi said.

Amid these discussions and plenaries, the quarter- and semi-finals of the Entrepreneurship World Cup also took place. Over the course of the day, the 100 startups drawn from national and regional finals around the world were whittled down to a final top ten of the 100,000 who originally entered the competition.

The ten finalists are: Bambrew (India), CiDi (China), Corumat Inc. (United States), DRD Biotech (Russia), Koniku Inc. (United States), NERv Technology Inc. (Canada), Red Sea Farms (Saudi Arabia), SUN Mobility (India), Sumato-ID (Argentina), and Tensortec (China).

 Misk Global Forum will continue with Day 2 on November 14, which will also see the grand finale of the Entrepreneurship World Cup amid the day’s discussions on empowering young people with the knowledge and skills to take the decisions they need to meet the challenge of change in a new era of work. – TradeArabia News Service