In January, WE'RE SMART® WORLD was honoured to be invited to the Belgium House at the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2025 in Davos, Switzerland.
On Wednesday, we attended a debate in the presence of His Royal Highness King Philippe and the Queen, moderated by our Prime Minister at the time, Alexander De Croo. It was a lively macro-economic debate with the participation of NATO's Secretary General Mark Rutte, the President of the European Investment Bank (EIB), and two top Belgian CEOs from Syensqo and John Cockerill.
On Thursday, after an inspiring panel debate on the importance of (food)innovation in Europe (referring to the recent Draghi report), Gil Dumarey — responsible for international commercial partnerships & events within the WE'RE SMART® WORLD organisation — participated in a panel by Fevia, the federation of Belgian food companies. The session was moderated by Anthony Botelberge and included the VP Legal & Corporate Affairs of AB InBev, the R&D Director of Puratos, the President of FoodDrinkEurope, and the MarCom Director of Greenyard. Afterwards, we ‘served the future of food’ with pure 🌱 plant-based finger food by Frank Fol – The Vegetables Chef®.
We built a bridge between the overarching theme of Davos — security — and food security, with a focus on the Future of Food, which for us means Plant Forward.
Gil: “If there are two key messages I took with me, they are the following:
First, WSW is leading — alongside many others in a kind of 'coalition of the willing' — the transition toward a more sustainable and healthy food system. Our movement is at a major turning point and is expanding rapidly on an international scale.
Second, the new US administration is a wake-up call for Europe. We should see this as a moment of opportunity to take our future into our own hands. We are in the heart of Europe and must be prouder and a bit bolder as a 'small country with great food'! Many Belgian companies are already leading globally in the sustainability agenda and the essential food transition.
Let us not forget: we are an SME country with a rich food and culinary culture and heritage that we must cherish together.”
A special thank you to FEVIA, Tine Vandervelden, and Bart Buysse for making this happen!
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