The first Global Economic Symposium (GES) took place in the early autumn of 2008. Dennis Snower, President of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy and GES Director, talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about its continuing efforts to bring together people from many professions, nations and cultures to develop solutions to a wide range of global challenges, including financial crises, climate change, poverty and such ‘tragedy of the commons’ phenomena as deforestation and overfishing. The interview was recorded in July 2011.