Last week I was invited to speak on a panel at the European Public Affairs Action Day. The topic of discussion was key trends in EU lobbying. As the introductory speeches began, I took a few minutes to gather my thoughts and I tried to think of some key insights and messages that would at least get a discussion going.
The setting was a conventional hotel venue populated with people in ties. So this was definitely not TEDxBrussels, but the turnout was good considering Brussels’ then arctic conditions.
I started by saying – rather dramatically – that we were living through a massive Black Swan epidemic (looked around to see if the word meant anything to the audience). In other words, we lived through a series of highly improbable events which had a significance impact – from the financial crisis to the Arab Spring and the never ending Eurozone crisis. Read more
