Big Think in Paris

Place Vendome – with mummified white cars Inside Above our heads as we dine Sky as I head ‘home’ View from ‘home’, on 23rd floor Ready for the Big Think debate In the garden of Le Pre Catalan

Fairly busy day, then Eurostar to Paris, dinner at Hotel d’Evreux, Place Vendome. Part of the Atlantic Dinners series, the theme this time: Brazil – the Atlantic’s Wild Card? Stayed at the Hotel Concorde La Fayette, which afforded spectacular view over the city towards La Defense.

I periodically have the sort of anxiety dream in which everything goes wrong on a journey – and the next morning was a living version of that. With taxis to and from the dinner having chewed up more euros than I had expected, I asked the concierge in the hotel where I could get out some euros: was there an ATM? Yes, he said, but deep in the heart of the Porte Maillot complex.

There began the most anxiety-inducing quest, which included blind alleys galore, an ATM machine that swallowed my card and refused to give it back until I hit all the buttons more or less simultaneously, at which point another ATM coughed up, then there were no taxis outside the main conference hall, so I headed back through the complex to the hotel to join the taxi line in front, only to find that there were some 25 people in it. When, finally, I got a taxi, the African driver was new to Paris and, though he knew where the Bois de Boulogne was, had no idea where Le Pre Catalan was, so we went back and forth until I told him to stop and ask. Which he did, and then we found our way. Happily, though, I was still early.

I was moderating a panel session that was being filmed for the Big Think, which my panellists being Philippe Delorme (Executive Vice President, Strategy and Innovation, Schneider Electric), Neville Isdell (former CEO of Coca-Cola and Chairman of the International Business Leaders Forum), Girish Paranjpe (Joint Chief Executive of Wipro’s IT business) and Bjorn Stigson (President, World Business Council for Sustainable Development). Session ran for around an hour and a half, and among the issues we covered were BP’s Gulf spill, the changing role of CEOs, the race to build the Green Economy, and the question whether the financial sector is a help or hindrance in all of this?

Will post a link when the session is posted on Big Think. Really liked their approach and am keen to see whether there are other ways we can work together. Wonderful lunch at Le pre Catalan, then back to Gare du Nord for the Eurostar home.