Every seat is a decision.
Invite-led. Approval-based.
Every seat at the edition is reviewed for role, relevance and the part of the decision the person holds, from the Capital Floor to the Roundtables and Workshops. The floor is designed for the right people to find each other; the Roundtables and Workshops are where the work gets done.
What matters is whether a person holds enough responsibility, mandate, influence or ownership to move a decision, so we select for that. What can you move, and what is in your way.
A significant share of each edition arrives by invitation, and the rest is reviewed the same way. No overflow, no livestream. If you are in, you are in.
One day. Two layers.
The Capital Floor
Live all day, and covered by every confirmed place. A limited number of Capital Floor Positions give selected organisations a standing presence within the Floor across the day; badges carry organisation and industry focus. The Floor is designed so relevant people can read the room faster and find each other more deliberately.
Roundtables and Workshops
Small working sessions running in waves alongside the Floor. Roundtables bring up to twenty people around one question, composed around the roles and perspectives the question requires. Workshops bring a working group around one live case, seated for fit to that case. Rooms are composed first; any chairs left open closer to the Edition can be applied for.
Selection comes first. The pass follows.
Capital, by thesis.
Build conviction faster. Capital is assembled early, so company applications can be considered in the context of the mandates, theses and stages already represented. The Roundtables are composed around the operators, corporates and other decision-makers whose choices determine whether that market scales.
- Relevant companies considered in the context of your mandate, stage and active investment interests
- Nominate one company or opportunity for review, subject to fit
The market, before it is priced.
For family offices, LPs, pension funds, endowments and development finance institutions deciding where to allocate. The programme brings allocation questions into contact with the corporate demand, operating capability, risk and underlying projects required for an investment thesis to hold.
- Test an investment thesis against relevant market and corporate perspectives
- Nominate one manager, opportunity or co-investor for review, subject to fit
A capital decision needs to move.
You are raising capital, financing deployment, or building the commercial conditions required for the next stage of growth. Investors and capital institutions are assembled early, allowing companies to be reviewed in the context of the mandates, theses and strategic demand already represented. The objective is to identify the conversations capable of moving a real capital or deployment decision.
- Reviewed in the context of relevant capital, buyers and strategic institutions already being assembled
- Considered for relevant Roundtables and Workshops where the company is directly relevant to the question or live case
The system around the capital.
The procurement lead who can commit. The innovation director who can pilot. The underwriter deciding what stays insurable. The public institution shaping the rules or infrastructure around the market. Corporates, insurers, government, regulators, infrastructure builders, research institutions and scientists whose decisions determine what can scale. Nestlé, Roche, Holcim, EY and Zurich Insurance were in the room at Edition I.
- Selected for procurement, policy, regulatory, infrastructure or strategic relevance
- Considered for relevant Roundtables and Workshops where institutional and market constraints meet
Shaping the work itself.
Organisations can work with TDR at different depths. One institution can take a standing founding role across TDR itself. Investment institutions can place an active mandate inside the capital architecture across two Editions. Programme partners can join work already in development, help shape it where there is a strong fit, or bring a relevant priority, question or objective. Networks can enter through a Collective Delegation.
TDR retains final composition, facilitation and editorial independence.
Venture capital investors, entrepreneurs, corporations and policymakers. Not on a stage. At a table. Literally bringing a diverse stakeholder group into one conversation.
Markus Fischer · EY & NEOS · ex-Ørsted, Tesla, UN
The room opens after the fit is clear.
Roundtables and Workshops · active theses · limited seats
A short list of commitments.
Come ready to work
Come knowing what you have to give as well as what you came to find: capital, companies, infrastructure, insight, or partnerships. In the sessions you build credibility by naming the constraint you actually face, not by performing a deck.
Phones away in the sessions
Presence is the price of a real contribution. Everyone here was reviewed against the same fit criteria, so assume the person opposite you is worth your full attention.
Anonymised in The Record
Sessions operate under the Chatham House Rule. Useful conclusions may be published in anonymised form. Participants are not attributed without agreement. Partners or convenors may be credited for bringing the work; the conclusions remain those of the people in the room.
Things people ask before applying.
This one is built to decide. Roundtables are capped at twenty so that everyone in them contributes, and each closes with what moves next and who holds it. Edition I produced 23 recorded commitments and a term sheet agreed on the day.
Fill out one form. If there is fit, we send confirmation and payment details. If not, we tell you. We respond to every application.
Working questions are published while the programme is in formation. Rooms fill first: Roundtable and Workshop places are composed around the people each question needs, not opened for general application. Tell us where you fit and why, and we weigh it against the room's brief. Roundtables seat around twenty who each have something to add. Workshops seat around one live case, so a place there depends on that case specifically. As the edition nears, any chairs still open are released and can be applied for. Whether or not you are seated in a room, the day itself is built for the people in it to find each other.
Your pass admits you to the full day: the Capital Floor, the programme and every open space in the venue. Roundtables and Workshops are the one thing allocated separately, because a capped table cannot be promised to everyone in the building. We aim to place every confirmed participant in at least one Roundtable or Workshop where there is a fit, and places cannot be promised. Partner and delegation allocations are handled separately.
The working questions are already published while the programme is in formation. Final session composition and allocations are confirmed a month out, when session applications open.
Confirmed attendees can nominate one person whose presence would sharpen the room: a founder, investor, buyer, or operator they want in their cluster. Nominations are reviewed against the same criteria as direct applications. Acceptance is not guaranteed. Nominees who pay for their own pass keep their nominator's right intact.
Passes are issued to named individuals. A colleague substitution may be considered with prior written approval and remains subject to the same fit criteria. If a colleague is the better fit from the start, ask them to apply directly.
Apply to be considered for The Decision Room.
Edition II takes place in Zürich in May 2027. We review in waves as the edition takes shape.