Time.news – The 53rd edition of the World Economic Forum: the annual meeting will last until Friday and will be attended by 2,700 world leaders from 130 countries, including 52 heads of state or government. For Italy there will be several top managers and entrepreneurs and the Minister of Education and Merit, Giuseppe Valditara.
Here are the 10 things you need to know about Davos
Where is Davos
is a town in the Swiss Alps, in the Canton of Grisons, well known as a ski resort. In the nineteenth century it was famous for hosting hospitals of a certain level and Thomas Mann, who had his wife hospitalized there, drew inspiration for his “magic mountain” during one of his stays. Usually the second or third week of January Davos hosts the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF), a Swiss non-profit organization, which includes the world’s business and political elite. Delegates (who are to be invited) include political leaders, executives and senior staff from major international companies, including hedge funds, banks, technology and big pharmaceutical companies, as well as academics. For five days, this small mountain town is literally stormed and locked down.
Impossible to move without being checked by a permanent corps of Swiss Army snipers (numbering 5,000) in ski boots, many of them stationed on rooftops overlooking conference venues and hotels. Locals say it’s a great time to ski as the slopes remain mostly unused. Virtually impossible to find a hotel room if you don’t participate in the forum.
What is the annual meeting of the Wef
The conference has been held annually since 1971. That year the European Management Symposium was held, an academic, economic and management conference chaired by Klaus Schwab: a professor of German origin at the University of Geneva, he had returned from a year at Harvard and wanted to share his new experience in US management systems. The first forum attracted 450 people. Over the years, it has grown. The forum first invited politicians in 1974 and 1976, and then expanded membership to CEOs and business leaders from more than 1,000 of the world’s leading companies. The foundation became the World Economic Forum in 1987. This year it is in its 53rd edition.
When if you have
It usually takes place between the second and third week of January. This year, from 16 to 20. The year after, on the other hand, was exceptionally held in the last week of May due to Covid, which had already forced the organizers to cancel the 2021 edition.
The guests
It’s not easy for CEOs of the world’s major corporations to strike five full days off their schedules; some stay only a day or two. However, the first “Davos” was held less quickly than today and lasted two weeks. Among the political leaders will be the German chancellor Olaf Scholz, the president of the EU Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, the Spanish premier, Pedro Sanchez, and the Greek one, Kyriakos Mitsotakis. But also the Belgian prime minister, Alexander De Croo, the president of Colombia, Gustavo Francisco Petro Urrego, the Dutch premier, Mark Rutte, the president of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos, the Polish one, Andrzej Duda, the Congo one, Felix Tshisekedi, as well to the Moroccan and Tunisian prime ministers, respectively Aziz Akhannouch and Najla Bouden. Also present will be the US President’s special envoy for climate, John F. Kerry, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Christopher Wray, the director of US National Intelligence, Avril Haines, the president of the Central Bank Union, Christine Lagarde, the secretary general of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, the director of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, the secretary general of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, the director general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and the director General of the World Trade Organization, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. There will also be 19 central bank governors.
Italians present
In addition to Valditara, the Italians include top managers Paolo Dal Cin of Accenture, Paolo Merloni of the Ariston group, Michele Crisostomo and Francesco Starace of Enel, Lucia Calvosa of Eni, Alexander Stubb of the European University Institute, Mario Moretti Polegato of Geox, Andrea Illy of Illycaffè, Carlo Messina of Intesa Sanpaolo, Nerio Alessandri and Erica Alessandri of Technogym, Andrea Orcel and Pier Carlo Padoan of Unicredit, Matteo Laterza of Unipol Group, Arnold Puech Pays d’Alissac of the World Farmers’ Organization and, finally, Federico Fubini of Corriere della Sera and Marco Zatterin of La Stampa.
What are you talking about
Davos discussions are always full of ideas and some come to fruition. The ‘Big’ spend the week discussing the answers to be given to the main global challenges. On the sidelines, they meet, greet each other and often reach understandings, conclude deals. Each year a different topic is addressed, this year’s edition is dedicated to ‘cooperation in a fragmented world’. In other words, explained Klaus Schwab, founder and executive president of the World Economic Forum, “we will try to strengthen public-private cooperation to face the most urgent challenges of the fragmented world in which we live”. There are over 450 panels scheduled during which the most diverse topics will be addressed: in addition to economic ones, also environmental, health, social and safety issues.
US presidents
The last to participate was Trump in 2018 and this year there will be no Joe Biden. In US history, Ronald Reagan has joined the Davos group several times, but only via video link. The first US president to sit in Davos was Bill Clinton in 2000. President George Bush never came to the village in the Swiss mountains and neither did President Barack Obama.
Badge
There is a proper hierarchy of WEF badges. Heads of state, royalty, and senior leaders have the most coveted badges: blank badges. Orange (medium), purple (technical staff), green (officials accompanying heads of state), and gray badges (for spouses and partners of white badgers) offer more limited access.
Weather forecast
In Davos, temperatures generally drop to -15 or -17 degrees and forum guests can take advantage of special shuttles for getting around. Although short, they are not very advisable due to the high probability of falls on icy paths.
Curiosities and anecdotes
The forum’s founder, Klaus Schwab, may be the only person to have slammed the phone in a French president’s face. In the 1970s he asked his secretary to call “Monsieur Giscard d’Estaing”. He wanted to speak to Olivier Giscard d’Estaing, the man in charge of the Insead business school. Instead the call was made to the Elysee palace, and Schwab was put in direct contact with the then French president, Valery Giscard d’Estaing. Hearing the president’s voice, Schwab panicked and put the phone down. Another anecdote: the former British Prime Minister, Edward Heath, made an appearance at the forum as conductor, taking over the direction of the Zurich Chamber Orchestra at a benefit concert in 1979, although his main job that year was to act as president of the forum. But, thanks to the forum, it seems that a war has also been thwarted. Former Turkish Prime Minister Ozal claims that Davos prevented his country from entering into conflict with Greece. When tensions between the two countries intensified in 1987, it did not lead to an open war because the previous year Ozal had met his Greek counterpart, Andreas Papandreou, at the Forum, realizing that he could be trusted.