Davos from a first time perspective
I just returned from my first Davos experience. It came together very quickly and I had zero expectations or knowledge of what it would be like in advance. Michael Casey
@mikejcasey, who's been eight times, showed me the ropes, got me into events, and made the introductions that mattered. Without him and his cofounder Trisha Wang
@triciawang from the Advanced AI Society,
@aai_society this experience wouldn't have been nearly as valuable.
Trump's attendance and the geopolitical topics being discussed, like Greenland, had everyone's attention. Jensen Huang showed up even though he never comes, and
@elonmusk just popped in unscheduled. For a few days, it was THE place in the world to be.
Here are some of my observations and takeaways.
On AI and what we're building:
AI came up in every conversation. What we're building at Edge & Node
@edgeandnode , and specifically with Amp and
@ampersend_ai, hit right at the center of what people were trying to solve. We're building infrastructure that lets enterprises use blockchain data with AI while keeping sensitive information private. Think financial institutions that want the transparency and auditability of blockchain but can't expose proprietary trading data or customer information. And as AI agents start making payments to each other autonomously, you need observability into those transactions, who authorized what, and where the money's actually going.
The financial world has embraced digital assets and blockchain technology. Transparency and interoperability are the killer features, but private data solutions are what enterprises need to fully adopt. That's where Ampersend comes in.
What surprised me was how urgent this has become. Mandates to implement blockchain are coming from CEOs and the highest executive levels. This is going to be the story of 2026. The big areas of concern with AI are security, trust, and verifiable data you can actually rely on. My panel at the USA House on trust in AI landed well because people are actively trying to solve these problems right now, and we're already working with financial institutions on exactly this.
On the vibe and dynamics:
The USA's presence and Trump's attendance cast a big shadow. The US made a stance against globalism and what the WEF has come to represent. I heard murmurs that the conference may change in the future.
The climate narrative took a back seat, and the bigger topic was meeting energy demand for AI data centers. I was somewhat pleased to see that, as I never agreed with the hypocrisy of the "you’ll eat bugs while we fly private" mentality.
There's a hierarchy here. Badge color, who you know, how much you spent to be there. It's very pay to play. The amount of money enterprises and countries spent setting up their houses and events is staggering, probably hundreds of millions in aggregate for the weeklong event.
But people were surprisingly accessible. As an example, I was at an after party and
@howardlutnick was there and you could just go up and talk to him (after getting past the bodyguards of course). I had a panel at the USA House right after All-In Podcast, and
@jason gave me a look when I was chatting with his wife in the green room. We laughed about it after.
The Europeans very much dislike Trump, as you would imagine. When his helicopters came in, the military jammed cell service. Everyone knew he'd arrived before they could check their phones. When his speech came on, everywhere I looked TVs were playing it and people paused conversations to listen.
For a couple of days, the Promenade (the small Main Street) turns into as busy a street as you'd see in New York City, with people from around the world walking around speaking all sorts of languages.
It reminds me in some ways of Burning Man in that it's a weeklong event that arises from a quiet place that people fly in for from around the world, there's very much a community of people that attend this type of event and see each other around the world or come back each year and have a sort of reunion. Houses on the promenade are like camps, but the big difference is everything is very much gated and access and entry is very much controlled.
Last Thoughts…
Come with a clear pitch and objective. It is the best in the world for business development and networking. Your network is your net worth as the saying goes!
A burger is $60 US dollars. The food is not great. Sorry Switzerland!
Trains get you anywhere. You'd be riding with people in their full ski outfits next to businesspeople. The train drops you right at the base of the lift if you ski.
The landscape and backdrop is stunning. Prepare to be wowed.
I was invited on a group ski day with top executives the day before the event started. As a lifelong skier, being able to squeeze in ski days while at the same time doing high level networking is a dream fulfilled.
I would definitely come again, and I would recommend businesspeople to attend if you have an offering or pitch that is relevant to this community. With Burning Man, your first time is often the best experience, so we'll see how future years compare to this one.