Davos Comms Community Never Disappoints with Shared Insights

April 2026 provided my second opportunity to attend the World Communication Forum Association (WCFA) Davos Summit in Switzerland.

Fresh off the plane home now and sitting back at my desk in Tennessee, I can’t help but marvel at the rich experiences of the past week, ensconced in the special-ness of both people and place.

For starters, part of the Davos Communication Summit’s “wow” factor is that this annual event is sited in one of the most beautiful destinations in the world: Switzerland.

For that reason, I budgeted for my trip several extra days on the front end, to cool my heels in Zurich (Thank you, Delta Airlines, for recently adding a direct flight from Atlanta to Zurich!).

It was lovely to take in the marvels of that glorious city, before hopping the train for the two-hour trek through the stunning Swiss Alps to the mountain town of Davos.

Another fun aspect this year for me was my opportunity to take my college-age daughter, Maggie, with me on this journey. She is majoring in communication studies at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and is president of UT’s oldest campus club, the 200-year-old Tennessee Speech & Debate Society.

Maggie and I also delighted in meeting up in Zurich for the Davos Summit “pre-game,” with our wonderful colleague, Johna Burke, CEO and global managing director of the London-based AMEC (the international association for the measurement and evaluation of communication).

And by the way — shameless plug! — if you’d like to see some of the insights and value that AMEC offers the global PR and communication community, please check out this recent webinar / video on AMEC’s reboot of its “Barcelona Principles.”

We love Johna and AMEC — and, it’s no wonder why Johna was invited as a keynoter to this year’s Davos Summit…

Although it was very much a working trip for Johna even for the Zurich leg of the itinerary, Maggie and I were able to have Johna join us for lunch one day to taste the city’s world-class Wiener schnitzel.

Also, while in Zurich, the three of us leveraged our lucky timing to witness the street parades and spectacles of Zurich’s annual Sechseläuten springtime festival. As an event highlight, the city literally explodes a snowman filled with pyrotechnics to welcome in the spring season, lakeside on the Sechseläutenplatz!

We saw it all!… Great cultural experiences of being with and among the fun and lovely Swiss citizens.

We also loved Zurich’s sweeping views of the Alps along Lake Zurich and exploring the “Old Town” city streets. It was terrific to meet up with one of our fellow Davos conference-goers for lunch post-Summit in Zurich as well before our departure, to take in Zurich’s not-to-be-missed “golden hour.”

On to Davos!

Immense gratitude is owed to Maxim Behar and his team at M3 Communications Group in Bulgaria, for their hard work to orchestrate the Davos Communications Summit each year.

As leader of the WCFA, Maxim volunteers tirelessly, to grow the community and share year-round content that aims to make PR a stronger management presence in boardrooms and c-suites. Maxim and his wife Veneta consistently show friendship, compassion, and care to their colleagues, and those qualities are much-needed in our industry and our larger world today.

Once arrived in Davos, we enjoyed the opening-night reception to say hello to familiar faces and new friends alike.

Among the outstanding keynoters, it was terrific to hear from our friend Johna Burke directly.

She helped set the stage for the entire conference, with her focus on what’s new and cutting-edge in communication measurement and A.I. best-practice:

Among her many helpful points, Johna shared the Global Data Quality Excellence Pledge at the Davos Summit and encouraged PR leaders and practitioners to embrace these principles. You can download the Pledge and check out other amazing resources, at AMEC’s “Resources” page of their website.

Maggie and I each had opportunities to contribute at the Summit as well.

I moderated a panel on PR Ethics, with senior-management and academic colleagues hailing from Barbados, Cameroon, the Czech Republic, Singapore, and the U.S. (Shout-out to Jared Meade on the panel, who is my collaborative partner in start-up and advocacy work for The #PRethics Community, over on LinkedIn. The Community served as a sponsor for this year’s Davos Summit.)

We focused our panel’s conversation on how ethics in PR has changed in certain ways over past decades, and how technology has influenced so many consideration points and key factors that tend to drive today’s most common (and uncommon!) ethical dilemmas.

We also discussed what has NOT changed in PR ethics — those factors and responsibilities that remain timeless, steadfast, and evergreen, regardless of technology or socio-political shifts across cultures.

For anyone interested in reviewing the Global PR Ethics Code research project that our panel discussed, it’s free to download from my website, at this link.

As a student and part of the Next-Gen cohort who attended in Davos, Maggie’s experience could only be enriched by those she had the opportunity to collaborate with and network.

Maxim Behar led the panel, “Modern Leadership: From Vertical to Horizontal,” which delved into the shift from hierarchical organizational structures commonplace in the past to the more equitably engaging and empowering structures seen today:

Another highlight in Davos for me was in reconnecting with my good friend from Slovenia, Katja Fasink.

When it comes to women in global communication who are simultaneously tough, brilliant, caring, and on-point, Katja ranks among the best. Find her on LinkedIn and follow her!

Between the two days of the event, we celebrated so many colleagues and firms producing effective campaigns and initiatives for their clients, reflecting the best in our field.

Stay tuned to the Davos Communications Summit and Awards website for more photo galleries of the honors bestowed… and Congrats to all!

There were far too many leaders and contributors at the 2026 Davos Communications Summit this year to list and pay appropriate tribute to each, but I hope everyone who attended and helped lead these efforts knows how much their work was seen, valued, and appreciated.

I encourage everyone to plan to attend future events hosted by WCFA. You can track the association’s master classes and other events, on the website.

Until next time!

Based in the U.S., Mary Beth West devotes her public relations career to supporting global ethics advocacy and academic research in the ethics / compliance arena.