The World Communication Forum in Davos drew together some of the world leaders in communications last month. Brittany Golob reports from Switzerland

At nearly 1,600m above the sea, the town of Davos plays host to some of the world’s biggest conferences, catering to the likes of political leaders, business high-flyers and the intelligentsia from NGOs, academic institutions and intergovernmental organisations alike. On 10-12 March, the alpine town was descended upon by the best and the brightest in world communications. The 5th annual World Communication Forum drew communicators from as far afield as Russia’s Yekaterinburg and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania together over the course of three days. The programme, too, spanned communications as it covered everything from the invention of the internet (and the smiley emoticon) to modern challenges facing universities and non-profits to communications surrounding global events like the Olympics and Tour de France.

Professor Dr. Marc Langendorf, head of corporate communications at Siemens AG, says events like the World Comms Forum are useful not only for networking purposes, but to learn from other communicators. He says one of the highlights of the week was the session on NGOs and charity communications. In this session, communicators from the WWF, the Blue World Institute and the Oleksandr Feldman Foundation, spoke about the unique challenges presented to the third sector.

Maxim Vodka, director of the Oleksandr Feldman Foundation, spoke passionately about charities acting as a source of trust. He said through a translator, “The more we promote a charity, the more effective the charity becomes, the more people tend to distrust it. However good your process can be, if there is a modicum of distrust, the long-term results will be negative.” The foundation also launched an award for promoting tolerance in communications and contribution to social responsibility in comms at the conference. The first prize will be distributed at next year’s World Communication Forum.

After a look at PR, politics and the changes brought on by new media, the mood was lightened as Dr Scott Fahlman, research professor in computer science at Carnegie Mellon University and the creator of the :-) symbol, took the stage to discuss the birth of the internet. In 1982, he said, the internet consisted of interconnected computers at military bases and universities across the U.S. The engineers and scientists that manned these portals engaged in a primitive form of social media and were searching for a means to depict sarcasm via type.

Fahlman’s creation, which he likens to Frankenstein’s monster in light of the recent trend toward emojis, is universal because it is free and easy to use. The analogy suits communications well, “Once your creation is out there, you can’t control it,” he says.

The first day of the conference came to an end with round table discussions and the ‘three whales game,’ an interactive session designed to reflect the growth and nature of the communications industry. Langendorf, who took part in the game as the representative of corporate communications, adds, “It was nice to be a whale.”

That evening, the Communications for Future awards were distributed Professor Dr Uday Salunkhe from the University of Mumbai took home the Grand Prix award for his contributions to the communications industry. Earlier, Salunkhe spoke about the ability of PR to build strong brands and develop relationships with stakeholders.

Davos provided a beautiful backdrop to the conference, and never more so than on the final day in which a deep blue sky and shining sun greeted delegates arriving at the Davos Congress Centre.

The first session of the day examined the economic and reputational benefits to be gained from hosting a

major global sporting or cultural event. The London Olympics, the poster-child for success in this instance, has proven the link between one-off events and economic benefits. Head of media for Yorkshire’s Grand Départ, Andy Denton, explained Yorkshire’s bid to host the Tour de France. He said storytelling and endorsement helped, but Yorkshire succeeded in that it changed the minds of the decision-makers and the Tour’s audience itself. PR at its best, as many speakers note, encourages trust between stakeholders and the organisation, brand or event.

Later sessions discussed science and technology, the development of university programmes in communications and comms in the healthcare sector. The conference came to a close with a look at the future challenges to be faced by communicators.

The conference, Stephanie Hills, UK communications & innovation officer in the CERN press office, says was an empowering experience.

“I knew that most of the people who come to this are extremely senior within the profession and I felt, perhaps, I didn’t have the level of expertise to participate. What’s been really interesting is to find that, actually, I have expertise that I perhaps hadn’t appreciated. Playing with the big boys and big girls is okay!”

She adds that the informal proceedings and networking opportunities offered by the World Communication Forum were of great use to public relations and other communications professionals. “It’s been interesting to see the cultural differences between the speakers from different nations and the level of development of PR in the different countries,” Hills says. “It’s opened up a great deal of knowledge to me.”

As the sun set over Davos on 12 March, the hordes of communicators that packed the Congress Centre began to disperse back to their homes around the world. The conference will occur again in 2015. For the rest of 2014, however, attendees can put to use the lessons they’ve learned, the tools they’ve developed and connections they’ve made to use in their work in communications.