Yet no matter what party might be going on or which company had the best off-site augmented reality installation, the inner sanctum of Davos has always been the Congress Centre, a convention space that serves as the gathering’s nexus and main stage. It is where, in 2020, you might have found Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany or President Donald Trump addressing a crowd of thousands while, in an adjacent lobby area, Jane Goodall took in a demonstration of Google’s new mapping technology.
The annual meeting has come to define the place more than the mountains, the ski slopes or the mulled wine served in chalet taverns.
Normally packed with lanyard-wearing conferencegoers hustling from a meditation session led by monks to a panel discussion about sovereign wealth funds, the halls of the Congress Centre are, for the time being at least, empty.
Besides delivering Switzerland a helping of cultural cachet, the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting is a major source of revenue for the national and local economy.
The 2020 meeting, the last one held in person, contributed about $US120 million ($166.4 million) to the Swiss economy, according to a study by the University of St. Gallen that was commissioned by the forum. The bulk of that, roughly $US70 million, was spent in Davos, which has a year-round population of about 11,000 people. That number essentially doubles when the forum comes to town. Hotels will feel the pain particularly acutely.
Whether the organisers will be able to pull off a gathering in Davos this summer remains up in the air. Cases are skyrocketing around the globe. Switzerland has introduced new restrictions as hospitals in the country are once again strained.
“It was a smart thing to do to not be hosting it right now,” said Valerie Keller, a Davos regular and a co-founder of Imagine, a company that works with executives to improve the state of the world and whose mission board includes Richard Branson and Arianna Huffington. “It would have been totally negligent if we were all in Davos right now.”
The 2020 meeting, the last one held in person, contributed about $US120 million to the Swiss economy, according to a study by the University of St. Gallen.Credit:Bloomberg
And still, is Davos really Davos without Davos? The town, or at least its name, has taken on a totemic significance that far eclipses its modest population. The term “Davos Man” has come to describe individuals so wealthy and powerful that they play by their own set of rules, and write the rules for the rest of us. The annual meeting has come to define the place more than the mountains, the ski slopes or the mulled wine served in chalet taverns. Even onetime critics of the World Economic Forum have come around and now embrace its singular place in Davos.
“In my early days, I was demonstrating during the WEF for better action against climate change and social justice,” Philipp Wilhelm, the mayor of Davos, told The Guardian after last year’s event was cancelled. “Now, I am trying to get the WEF back to Davos.”
