When I arrived at this conference I had no idea what an ecological footprint was. After being in the conference I was curious to find out more about this topic (ah, and of course about the Dongtan eco-city, which plans to opens its doors in 2010 and be an environmental, economical, social and cultural sustainable city). OK, it’s not good. According to a website quiz, my total footprint is 15. If everyone lived like me, we would need 8.3 planets. Please check yours, it would probably make me feel better, unless you are really ecologically conscious.

According to a panel with Chris Luebkeman (Head of Foresight for Arup), Livia Tirone (Portuguese architect) and Noni Allwood (Cisco), two important factors are energy and people. Population is increasing by the second and during your lifetime, the planet will increase from 6 to 9 million. In China, 600 million people are expected to move to urban areas in the years ahead.

After hearing all of this information I got worried. But, there is hope, big hope. Sustainable construction (for example, buildings which demand lower energy), lower fuel consumption, recycling, etc. are a reality. So, when you are planning to move, consider about living in a sustainable city. If they are not ready, look for sustainable constructions, buildings which consume less energy. And think about your lifestyle, even if you don’t think it matters, it does. Just look up your ecological footprint and you will know.

According to Marie-Christine Lombard, CEO, TNT Express division, there are five factors that helped her succeed and that she thinks women should take into account when figuring out how to achieve their professional dreams:

• education
• early international exposure; especially in this globalized world
• take risks; think of what you want, not what others think you should want
• no sacrifice on private life; it will be hard and tough but it is possible
• market yourself; communicate your ideas, sell yourself

Taking risks is not always easy, actually it’s very hard. But sometimes you have to go with your gut feeling and go for it. I’ve heard plenty of comments in this forum about how sometimes women have to be pushed for a promotion and on the contrary, that if they are too pushy, it’s bad. So, where is the middle point? When should you push, when should you hold back and wait? There is no correct answer for that, everyone is different and everyone has a different style. Feel proud of your accomplishments, market yourself as the best solution and believe that you can do it. This could be a way to crack that thick heavy glass ceiling or as Laura Liswood said on Thursday, “There’s no such thing as a glass ceiling for women, it’s just a thick layer of men.”

Are we living in the real world or in a digital world? Some people think they are the same, other people think they are completely different and if you ask other people, they think the more you live on the digital world, the less you live in the real one. Facebook and MySpace are the digital networks of today. According to Anne Lange, Senior Executive Advisor, Cisco Systems, USA, 60% of 17-19 and 18-21 years-old of “Generation Y” are members of one social network. Women spend more time on social networks (we are so organized and we can multi-task so well that we even have time to log on).

Even if we don’t agree with the digital world and these types of networking, they exist. We can’t deny and I think we shouldn’t. Why? Because they are changing the world and they way we live. Jean-Louis Constanza, CEO, TEN France, commented that in countries where internet penetration is high young people choose internet over TV. So, if we don’t participate in the digital world we may be ostracized from the younger generations.

There is a big debate over Second Life and Orkut. Are they safe? Can you trust people (or avatars) you meet there? Should business go there and see it as new market? Well, as one of the panelists said, networks are like real life and there will be good, bad and ugly.

Facebook and MySpace are the digital networks of today. According to Anne Lange, Senior Executive Advisor, Cisco Systems, USA, 60% of 17-19 and 18-21 years-old of “Generation Y” are members of one social network. Women spend more time on social networks (we are so organized and we can multi-task so well that we even have time to log on).

Even if we don’t agree with the digital world and these types of networking, they exist. We can’t deny and I think we shouldn’t. Why? Because they are changing the world and they way we live. Jean-Louis Constanza, CEO, TEN France, commented that in countries where internet penetration is high young people choose internet over TV. So, if we don’t participate in the digital world we may be ostracized from the younger generations. Mobile phones are the way people are accesing the internet in developing countries, they are sold more than computers.

There is a big debate over Second Life and Orkut. Are they safe? Can you trust people (or avatars) you meet there? Should business go there and see it as new market? Well, as one of the panelists said, networks are like real life and you will find the good, the bad and the ugly. So, you will have to judge by yourself, just like real life.

I, along with 10 other women, went into the Men’s Corner. So, I guess it is not really a Men’s Corner, although the decoration is very suitable for males (black leather couches, flat screen TV, a bar - see a picture in this previous post).

This place gives participants the opportunity to have very interactive and one-on-one conversations with executives of important companies.

Conversation and questions came up. Interesting subjects such as why is flexibility only geared towards women? Why can’t men participate in flexible programs too? Why are women stopping other women from climbing the corporate ladder? How to convince management this issue is important? What about husbands who move to another country with their wife because she got her dream job?

A question was thrown: Who do you hire when you have two great candidates with similar characteristics, one is male and the other female? The politically correct answer would have been the female. But an audience participant came up with an interesting solution “Let’s forget about fighting, women can bring different ideas, you should hire both. Opportunities are not limited”

Gender diversity is not about victimizing women or punishing men. It is not about dividing and separting or about having different benefits by gender. It is about complement. That is what many companies do not understand. That is what many men don’t understand and therefore, they see this as threatening or conflictive. Diversity is balance, diversity is taking what is good from each person and mixing it, thus creating an idea that would had never arised from one homogenous group.

So let’s stop talking about division and let’s start thinking about balance and counterparts.

Growing up in developing countries is not easy. Being a women in a developing country is hard. Increasingly women are becoming the sole providers for their families. This makes their role even more important. But, how can they do that when their opportunities are limited by gender, education and health issues?

Actually, things are being done and done in a great way. I had a chance today to talk with Kalpana Simhan from Vital Voices. This organization is dedicated to invest and train emerging women and girl leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs who work to increase women’s and girls’ participation in all strides of society. They are present in Africa, Eurasia, East and South Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean and the Middle East.

Investing in women who lead other women is a cascading effect. They also help women promote equitable laws in their countries. What I really liked about this organization is that they don’t go to places and tell people what to do: they let women in communities lead their own. This is really important when working in social projects, it is not about “imposing” a right way, it is about respecting the way people do things and provide them with the tools and training to help them achieve their dream.

New technologies. New advances in medicine. We hear about a new drug to cure this disease, a protein that has been discovered, a new technology that will improve that process. But, what does it really mean? Are we all understanding the same thing? Who controls what is being researched or how should human enhancement, genetic testing, etc be used?

All of these questions have no definite answer, but the different points of view of a panel on the topic today gave me a pretty good idea of how differently humans can think about one same issue. The one thing the panel really agreed on was that it has be to “ethical”. Nick Bostrom, Director of the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford, gave excellent examples of how humans have reacted negatively to advances in medicine throughout history, for example anesthesia (something that I take for granted, how could I go to the dentist without it?). How can science and society interphase? According to Nick, through public understanding (when scientists explain to the general public how things work, in my case, it could be the equivalent to learning a foreign language in 24 hours), public engagements where people would have the chance to ask questions (sounds better) and bringing the public in an earlier stage of the research process.

When asked about why people resist to technological and scientific change, he commented that before, people were born, lived and died without really experiencing these changes during their lifetime. About 300 to 400 years ago, changes began to happen, so people have not “evolved” biologically to resist change, it’s psychological. It takes time for people to differentiate between good and bad ideas. Well, that leaves me thinking: how do we all agree what is bad and what is good? Where do we draw the line?

We are gathered here at the Women’s Forum discussing issues that impact women in business, education, society and politics. Why is there never a case for non-diversity? As women, we network and participate in forums to find ways to improve our position in society. Thousands of research and studies have been done on the impact of either having a low or a high percentage of women in a company. Today, McKinsey came out with a study called “Women Matter” (despite the English title, the report is in French, here in PDF). As Laura Liswood appropriately said in today’s panel on Women and Competitiveness, there is no “Do Men Matter” research.

Will we ever get to the point when women don’t have to fight the business case for diversity? Will it ever become a given that women and men are equal but different and that they complement each other? Will it ever be OK for a man to participate in a flexibility program without being seen as not ambitious? Will the percentage of women who have children and have a position in boards increase over time?

The Women’s Forum is a perfect place to debate all of this topics. For sure, there will be no right answer to any of this questions and the next generations of women will be responsible to carry on the torch and hopefully, they won’t have to fight the business case for diversity.