Buzzword bingo, Davos edition

Think you know your 'bilats' from your 'ideation'? BBC Capital unravels the jargon.

The World Economic Forum in Davos can be a jumble of big words and big ideas, lingo that can be both vague and ultra-precise all at once. Some are particular to the event, like Belvédère – one of the central hotels in town where companies and their executives hold unofficial events and pow-wows.

There’s also the odd slang term that refers to private meetings between attendees: bilats, quite literally diplomatic parlance for bilateral meetings. Or ideation that’s the term currently en vogue for simply coming up with new ideas. While Ecosystem, in 2016 business-speak, refers to a huge network of creative people, sales people, manufacturers and customers that defines a particular industry not the pondlife you thought it might apply to.

Then there are the words that encompass everything and nothing, such as multi-stakeholder and geosecurity. Of course, emerging topics are also hotly discussed. Among those this year: LGBT, with the WEF adding discrimination in the workplace and other issues to its official agenda for the first time.

Try your hand at Davos Buzz Word Bingo as you watch, read and listen to the powerbrokers, dealmakers and luminaries at the annual event.

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Lucy Marcus is an award-winning writer, board chair and non-executive director of several organisations. She is also the CEO of Marcus Venture Consulting. Follow her Davos coverage for BBC Capital here and on Twitter @LucyMarcus.