OVERVIEW

Seeds of so much of our future lie with our young people.
We should spend more time on them.
We should educate far more of them for far longer.
We should set them better examples
And, when they join our corporations,
We should give them every opportunity
To practice what they are learning,
even if they occasionally
get it wrong.

Charles Handy
Beyond Certainty ^[1]

Our future is in good hands.

I find this to be true in every corner of the world; but in March 1999, I discovered the students at the University of Cologne, Germany, who accomplished something extraordinary. Originating in 1984, the Organisations Forum Wirthchaftskongress (OFW) now a 34 member (all honorary) student team works to gain practical experience in addition to the theory the university provides. These bi-annual conventions bridge the gap between generations and nations and provide a common prospect of the opportunities and risks of the future.

In addition to the Congress content and format innovation, OFW reaches all over the world for student essays on the topic of the convention: "Rethinking Knowledge." In an intensive competition complete with review committee, I,III papers from students in eighty-three countries from Albania to Zimbabwe were received. 400 of the best were selected, and those individuals came from over seventy countries to participate in the dialog.

In short, it was an exceptional pooling of expertise and the closest I have seen to the harnessing of our worldwide collective intelligence. The substance of the dialog was so robust that I cannot...