In between discussions of poverty and climate change, delegates at the Swiss conference also found time to focus on the state and future of the technology industry.

1. Carney takes on tech tax evaders

Speaking on a panel with Christine Lagarde, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney upped the pressure on tax-dodging, singling out companies in the technology industry as some of the worst offenders.

"Some of the firms that take advantage of international tax rules are the tech companies. The amount of tax they pay is small in relation to the system. A sense of responsibility is needed."

2. Huawei denies spying

The founder of Huawei, Ren Zhengfei, is not known for courting media attention, so a Town Hall-style session at Davos provided a rare insight into the life and times of the reclusive Chinese entrepreneur. Ren took the opportunity to deny, in no uncertain times, that Huawei has not the intention or capability to spy on the U.S. He smilingly decried Huawei’s technology as too simple and crude to be able to carry out surveillance for the Chinese government and categorically stated that they had not made such a request.

3. Google predicts the end of…the internet?

Well, not exactly. Google’s Chairman Eric Schmidt expects the internet to become so pervasive that it will ‘disappear’ into the background.

"There will be so many sensors, so many devices, that you won’t even sense it, it will be all around you. It will be part of your presence all the time. Imagine you walk into a room and… you are interacting with all the things going on in that room. A highly personalised, highly interactive and very interesting world emerges."

4. Sandberg wants to get more people connected…especially women

Facebook Chief Operation Officer and Member of the Board, Sheryl Sandberg, is as well known for her work towards gender equality as she is for her work with the California internet giant. The author of ‘Lean In’ used her platform at Davos to publicise what she sees as the benefit of spreading the internet to more people.

"We increase voice…we increase economic opportunity…and we increase equality."

"The benefits of getting women connected often outweigh the benefits of getting men connected because they will put their investments back into the education and health care of their children."

5. Marc Benioff challenges corporations to provide ‘radical’ transparency

Marc Benioff, the CEO and founder of cloud computing company salesforce.com, thinks that vendors and companies will struggle to maintain their place in the market if customers struggle to trust them with data and private information.

"Ultimately, only through radical transparency are we going to get radical new levels of trust which is where we have to get to make this new world really work."

6. Colao claims internet is a human need

Vittorio Colao, CEO of Vodafone Group, predicts that the internet will someday soon be considered an essential human need, on a par with the very instruments of our survival.

"To me the biggest question for the future is will we really continue in the future to licence spectrum – do governments licence oxygen? No. The Internet is oxygen, it’s water."

7. Security, security, security, and…security

Accenture CEO Pierre Nanterme certainly can’t be accused of being coy about his views on what obstacles lie in the path of the tech industry. According to Nanterme,

"…the four biggest challenges the tech industry faces in coming years are security, security, security and security."