Okay, the headline is a big exaggerated, of course a conference like the current United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP15 as it is also known, must be held, but I seriously am of the opinion that a conference like this will not save the World.

It is perfectly clear that over the next years and decades drastic measures have to be taken in order to avert a climatic catastrophe that will probably change the way we (and all other beings, for that matter) live on this planet forever. No serious scientist will argue against this.

Yet politicians from all over the Globe are just messing about. Back in their respective home countries everybody stressed the importance of COP15 and then shows up basically empty-handed in the Danish capital. It doesn't surprise me, however.

Over the years, I have become somewhat of a passionate pessimist about these kinds of conferences. They either end with no agreement at all or with an agreement that does not have any effect whatsoever except that it shows that everybody was able to agree on playing it safe.

The problem with a conference on something like climate change, human rights or any social or ecological matter, in general, will hardly ever yield any tangible results since there is nothing like a strong international union to stand up for the cause.

When talking to Greg about Copenhagen briefly, he quoted his father who says: "Countries know no friends, they only know interests." Nicely put, and it's probably not even something one with a decent sense for the realities of this World can argue against.

However, what the nations' leaders fail to see at COP15 that it is in the genuine interest of humankind to get both feet on the ground, and that it is about high time to do so. Because saving the planet is not in the interest of one single nation, but rather in everybody's interest.

Therefore, I say: no nation, no government, no politician will or can ever stop climate change, not Germany's Angela Merkel, not the Chinese regime, not President Obama. And I don't even want them to. I wouldn't mind if they did find an agreement, but on the other hand, I am certain that it does not depend on them.

All around the World the most encouraging signs of the will to clean out this mess we are diving into head-on are not coming from national institutions, but rather from regional ones, cities, states, local initiatives. Not although, but exactly because the administrators here wield power over smaller entities, they are able to generate change.

And this is exactly what we need to see. Big entities are practically immovable, the smaller ones are where the action is at. And the smallest entity in the hierarchy is the single person. In my eyes, we shall not look to our governments to take responsibility for us.

We need to get active ourselves. Relying on the World's leaders only makes things worse, because we are denying our part in this: We are responsible for climate change and each and every single one of us needs change now. Start today! If they can't do it, we will have to. If we can't, then noone can.

This is why I believe that Copenhagen is not important.

I am sitting in the auditorium of the Museum of Natural History in Geneva as I'm writing this. Today sees the first installment of a TED conference in Switzerland. TED X Geneva is one of a string of independently organized conferences which comprise what one would expect from a real TED conference: (mostly) fresh and inspiring talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design. All of the speakers are somehow related to some Swiss scene, business or institution.

In my eyes, the conference is well-balanced, some techie stuff (which still was interesting for the clueless guy that I am), and some ideas from the "social" sector (sustainability, humanity, that sort of stuff). On the Tech side, I was especially awed by Jan-Mathieu Donnier and his presentation about his business: 360° 3D video imagery (please check out his Streetview site, an alternative take on Google's project). Pretty mindboggling input, just like the gesture-based computer interface Frederic Kaplan introduced. Quite complementary was the talk by François Bugnion about the birth of the Red Cross and the Geneva Convention.

My favorite talk so far, however, was Louis Palmer's tale of his trip around the Globe in the Solar Taxi. He talked about the reaction to his voyage in different countries: China was very welcoming and interested in solar energy while Australia didn't really seem to bother. And in Japan he wasn't even allowed on the road: Swiss license plates are obviously not compatible with Japanese traffic rules. But his trip around the World was a huge success and now he is putting together a global race – for solar-powered vehicles, of course. I filmed the talk, you can watch it here. The visual side isn't so high-quality, but the sound is good.

These are just some of the talks held here today, the live presentations are rounded off with all-time faves from the TED archives like this classic Hans Rosling presentation (be sure to watch it till the end, it's well worth it). My intermediate conclusion: TED X Geneva is well-organized and well-executed, with a lot of interesting people attending. A lot of output will be coming from it (judging from the sheer mass of Tweets during the conference) and I would really like to see another TED X session being held in Zurich.

The day after: The rest of the story after I have slept it over. The afternoon in Geneva went down in similar fashion with more talks on sport and its rehabilitatory power for refugees, matter and anti-matter (of which I understood only about half (probably the matter part)), motorbike travels through Asia and TED itself. Last up was Xavier Rosset who talked about his 300 days alone on a remote island in the Tonga archipelago. And this talked summed up pretty well what TED is all about: Without the people surrounding us, we are nothing. Life is about interaction, not about sheer survival.

One of the really cool things about this TED conference was meeting all the different people, everybody with a very distinct background, often completely different from my own. Talking to these people with their goals and ideas can be quite inspiring, since they offer new scopes and angles on things.

So, what can be improved? All in all, I though TED X Geneva was pretty well organized. For the next conference, however, I would include less videos (max. two), or maybe TED should offer videos which have not yet been shown on the TED site to conference organizers. Also, some of the talks were limited in quality by the visual presentation. Either it was completely missing where there should've been some illustration or it was all bullet points and little visuals. And some talks could've been shorter for what the speakers had to say. Apart from that, chapeau to Yves Bennaïm and his team of organizers.

What are your thoughts on TED X Geneva? What are you taking out of it? What did you like especially, what could you do without?

During the afternoon, Peter Hogenkamp of Blogwerk announced that there will be a TED X Conference in Zurich on March, 2nd, 2010 (see also in the commentaries). Put a big red X into your calendars!

Dania had been working on this for a loooong time now, yesterday it finally happened: The Zurich Web Scene gathered for its Web Monday at the Google offices. The building is famous (bordering on legendary) for its insane interior architecture – fancy a sample?

How about a relaxation room with diwan beds and aquariums, a arcade room with table tennis, foosball, and air hockey (how Eighties is THAT?), a room which is literally a jungle, discarded ski-lift gondolas everywhere as retreats for making a phone call in quiet, a bar that serves as a Tech helpdesk? Oh, and did I mention the free food for every Google worker, including yummy ice-cream by a brand that starts with B & J? Doesn't sound half bad, no wonder that well over a hundred Websters wanted to attend the evening. They even came from as far away as Germany, and they witnessed three cool and interesting presentations.

After a few welcoming words from Rupert Breheny of Google Joaquin Cuenca Abela of Panoramio presented their case and how they got acquired by Google. The essence: It is all about your network. If you work together successfully, it is likely that those in your network who worked with you will also succeed on other projects. Next followed a short presentation by Andreas Hoffmann, a UBS representative. He introduced a competition to find a social media strategy for his bank (and for its customers) – the grand prize being 5,000 Swiss Franks for the three best ideas. You'll find more on this in the Web Monday magazine soon.

The last presentation of the night was held by Dr. Manfred Vogel and his team of the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW). He talked about the Master studies at his institution and the Swiss Universities can help startup businesses get their products on track. This was rounded off with two case presentations, which included Amazee and Galaxy Advisors.

The usual networking afterwards was cut short by Rupert's announcement that there will be tours of the house. So, the friendly Google staff took small groups 'round the truly amazing offices, before we had to return to the snow and cold again ...

Here we go, some impressions from yesterday's wonderful UX Book Club Meeting. I guess I haven't laughed as much in the last few weeks as in these 3 hours of our UX self-help group meet-up. Not because of Josh Porter's book Designing for the Social Web (recommended, follow @bokardo), but much more because of Pascal's lively visualizations of the goal-conflicts between Coders and UX Designers. Wonderful! Conclusion of the evening: The experience is the product.