53rd St. Gallen Symposium: "Confronting Scarcity"

Companies, governments and people are confronted with dwindling resources. With less energy and water, trade disruptions, higher capital costs and shrinking workforces, how do we deal with this? The 53rd St.Gallen Symposium on 2 and 3 May 2024 will address this question, inviting participants to rethink current economic and social models.

The 53rd edition of the St. Gallen Symposium is dedicated to new challenges due to foreseeable shortages: Energy, labour, raw materials, capital. Many things are becoming more expensive and scarcer in times of climate change and geopolitical tensions. There is also an increasing shortage of intangible goods such as time, creativity and care. This year's "Voices of the Leaders of Tomorrow Report", a global survey of a total of 900 young and established executives conducted together with the Nuremberg Institute for Market Decisions, also emphasises the need for dialogue between the generations on this topic. "While 64% of today's top managers believe that solutions for ecological resource shortages can be found in time, only 47% of the Leaders of Tomorrow share this optimism," says Felix Rüdiger, who is co-organising the St. Gallen Symposium as Head Content & Research. To what extent can innovation, efficiency and circular models help to deal with the worsening bottlenecks? Where do far-reaching changes need to be considered? Guests from all over the world will explore these questions in presentations and discussions.

Among the invited personalities are:

Karin Keller-Sutter, Federal Councillor, Head of the Federal Department of Finance of Switzerland
Yulia Navalnaya, Advocate for Democracy and Russian human rights activist
Carsten Spohr, CEO, Lufthansa Group
Nyombi Morris, climate activist, Founder & CEO, Earth Volunteers
Clara Zoé Richter, Founder, Women With Impact
Tan See Leng, Minister for Manpower, Trade and Industry, Singapore
Niankoro Yéah Samaké, Presidential Candidate of Mali 2024
Katherine Maher, CEO NPR
Roshni Nadar, HCL Tech
Daniel Risch, Prime Minister Liechtenstein

Reporters Without Borders: European launch of the press freedom ranking

To mark Press Freedom Day on 3 May 2024, the organisation's Deputy Secretary-General Thibaut Bruttin will present the 2024 Index on global media freedom in 180 countries and territories.
When and where: Friday, 3 May 2024, SQUARE, Arena (room A 11-2091), 1 pm to 2 pm.

International panel: "Balancing Act: Critical Resources in the Global Energy Transition"

Environmental and supply chain issues emphasise the need to switch to renewable energies as well as the challenges of mining lithium and cobalt for batteries. Europe is dependent on imports, which can lead to unstable supply chains. The tension between the sustainable supply of raw materials and the promotion of green technology is highlighted by current deep sea mining projects. What impact do mining and deep sea mining have on the environment? What recycling innovations are needed? And how do we ensure energy supply in line with ecological obligations? This topic will be addressed by an international panel on Thursday, 2 May 2024, 6 to 7 p.m., in the Aula (room A 02-001) with the following guests:

Matthias Tauber, Managing Director & Senior Partner, BCG
Gerard Barron, CEO, The Metals Company
Thaissa Avena da Cruz Antunez, MPA in Development Practice, Columbia University
Alex Cornelissen, CEO, Sea Shepherd Global
Niankoro Yéah Samaké, presidential candidate of Mali 2024

Study: How do today's and tomorrow's leaders view the scarcity of natural resources?

Optimism is particularly widespread among the older generation of decision-makers. This is suggested by the results of this year's edition of the "Voices of the Leaders of Tomorrow" study. The Nuremberg Institute for Market Decisions (NIM), together with the St. Gallen Symposium, the Nuremberg Institute for Market Decisions (NIM) asked 650 young international talents, the "Leaders of Tomorrow", and 250 current top managers from the world's top-selling companies about their perspectives on the global trend of scarcity of natural resources. On Friday, 3 May 2024, 11 a.m., the following guests will discuss the results and ideas of the study in SQUARE, room A 11-1081:

Fabian Buder, Head of Future and Trend Research, Nuremberg Institute for Market Decisions
Claudia Süssmuth Dyckerhof, Member of the Board of Directors, F. Hoffmann-La Roche
Nina Hesel, Senior Researcher Marketing & Insights, Nuremberg Institute for Market Decisions

Leaders of Tomorrow" ideas competition: 25 best essays

The young talents qualify for participation in the symposium via a global essay competition. The essay question for participation in this year's St. Gallen Symposium was: "Strive for more or make do with less: What urgent shortcoming do you see? How could it be remedied?" Here are the top 25 essays.

1000 participants from 100 nations and 100 speakers

The young participants of the conference were selected in cooperation with over 300 universities worldwide. Guests and executives will also come to the University of St.Gallen campus from around 300 partner companies and institutions. The conference is organised by organised by 25 students from the International Students' Committee of the University of St.Gallen.

"St. Gallen Symposium in Town" in selected venues in St.Gallen city centre

In keeping with the motto "locally anchored, internationally networked", the St.Gallen Symposium is once again offering a series of public events this year. Selected pubs in the city centre will host discussions with personalities who will also be guests at the conference, for example:

What is Europe's security situation? Conversation with Egils Levits, President of Latvia from 2019-2023
Women's football: the future! – WEURO 2025 in St.Gallen
"I was BILD": Reading and discussion with former BILD editor-in-chief Kai Diekmann

All public lectures/seminars are listed here: "St. Gallen Symposium in Town"

About the St. Gallen Symposium

The St. Gallen Symposium is one of the world's leading initiatives for intergenerational dialogue on economic, political and social topics and developments. For 50 years, leaders and visionaries have been brought together with young hopefuls in St.Gallen and at global locations as well as in digital formats. Together, the opportunities and challenges of our time are addressed and solutions developed. The St. Gallen Symposium is a student initiative. Under the strategic support of the St.Gallen Foundation for International Studies, the International Students' Committee – a team of around 30 students from the University of St.Gallen (HSG) – organises various events of international scope in order to promote intergenerational dialogue. During the symposium in May, they will be supported by 500 other HSG students. Personalities such as Christine Lagarde (European Central Bank), Christian Mumenthaler (Swiss Re), Jack Ma (Alibaba Group), Prof Niall Ferguson (Stanford University), Kersti Kaljulaid (President of Estonia), Sigmar Gabriel (former German Vice-Chancellor) and Anders Fogh Rasmussen (NATO) have already taken part in the St. Gallen Symposium formats, as well as at least one Federal Councillor every year.

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