After yesterday’s insightful words during the opening ceremony of the European Forum Alpbach 2022, the Club Alpbach of Lower Austria started the day with a hike to Zirmalm. On a rather cold summer day in the mountains, I can wholeheartedly attest that the picturesque panorama from the top is worth the long hike. Here in Alpbach, hikes and walks are not only conducive to getting to know one another but also provide you with the room needed to think critically and outside the box.
After the hike I attended my seminar on Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies – a field I had only marginally encountered during my education. Aside from learning about the functioning of blockchain, we discussed the foundations of belief in a currency and thereby the prerequisites of decentralized money. A point I found fascinating is the fact that banks function as a trusted intermediary for monetary transactions. If society establishes sufficient trust in blockchain technology, will banks as intermediaries become obsolete?
I made use of my attendance at the European Forum Alpbach these past couple of days to expand my horizon by participating at a plethora of conferences. I discovered that a key to the future of the public and the private sector is adaptability and resilience. This does not necessarily entail a need for sharp change, but rather a need to be able to adapt to novel situations and become resilient to crises and shocks.
While preparing to attend the social event later in the evening, I decided to reflect on my primary goal at Alpbach for the next 12 days. The goal behind attending a variety of sessions with different focal points is to attain a multidisciplinary mindset which would hopefully permit me to approach issues from various perspectives.
We know that financing Europe’s future must be done sustainably, we know that European security is linked to its energy dependency and its democratic health. This is to say that the interconnectedness between all four themes of the European Forum Alpbach 2022 is what inspired me to apply to this event.
As I walked up the stairs to the Magenta Summit that would conclude the day for me, I came closer to realizing what part of “the spirit of Alpbach” is all about – no matter who you are, if you want to make a difference tomorrow and talk to the people that make a difference today, Alpbach is the place for you.