Day One in Dubai

Note: As described in this post, I’m in Dubai as a member of the Global Agenda Council on Social Media for the World Economic Forum. I’ll be sharing some of experiences here on SMUG.

I arrived in Dubai about 7:30 p.m. Saturday night, feeling reasonably well-rested after the 14-hour flight from Seattle by way of the North Pole. The service on Emirates Air Boeing 777 was outstanding, as was the seating (or bedding) in Business Class.

Flying over North Pole

 

Flat bed Emirates

 

So the result was that I was energized for a big day yesterday. The coordinator for our Global Agenda Council on Social Media advised us that we should be sure to bring sunglasses and sunscreen, which led me into a few adventures on the way to the convention centre, inspiring this tweet:

For those who may not recall the cultural significance, see this clip for the background:

After a lunch during which our council got to meet face-to-face for the first time, and then an opening plenary session with all of the other councils, we settled in for an afternoon of brainstorming on what high impact projects we should consider for our two-year term.

This morning we have some cross-council meetings, and I get to participate in a breakfast discussing the global response to Ebola.

You can follow, and join in the discussion, on Twitter via the #WEFSocMed hashtag.

 

Author: Lee Aase

Husband of one, father of six, grandfather of 15. Chancellor Emeritus, SMUG. Emeritus staff of Mayo Clinic. Founder of HELPcare and Administrator for HELPcare Clinic.

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