Early each year, we get to hear how the world’s leaders, movers and shakers and a huge entourage of interested parties have descended on Davos in the Swiss Alps.
While we also read occasional headlines about speeches that invited guests like Greta Thunberg and Bill Gates have made, we don’t really get to know or see what goes on away from the podium. So, to shed some light on this fascinating if slightly mysterious event, it’s well worth taking a look behind the scenes.
The official title of the gathering is the World Economic Forum, and the very first one was held back in 1971 when German economist Klaus Schwab seized the opportunity to bring together 450 leaders for what was then called the European Management Symposium. He chose Davos as a remote location where one could escape from the everyday and where the clean, mountain air would provide the perfect environment for reflection. Today, that peace and tranquility is somewhat shattered as it welcomes 3,000 participants from across the world including presidents, billionaires and influencers.
For the rest of the year, Davos is an upmarket ski resort but for the duration of the Forum it is transformed into one of the most exclusive places on Earth.
Participants stay in the many luxurious hotels that at other times are filled with well-to-do winter sports fans. The favourite of these is The Intercontinental, nicknamed “The Golden Egg” thanks to its distinctive ultra-modern design. For this year’s event, President Trump and his entourage took over a whole floor. Other favoured locations include the Steigenberger and Seehof Hotels where guests can enjoy more traditional, but no less luxurious, Swiss hospitality.
During the week of the event many of the stores in Davos close down and rent out their premises to multinationals and pressure groups – but for bars and restaurants, it’s business as usual. It’s here that many informal meetings are held, no doubt with deals being done and decisions being made that have wide global ramifications.
As you might expect, another key meeting point and destination is the town’s casino. More surprisingly, anyone can experience Casino Davos not necessarily in person but certainly as one of the world’s leading online casinos. With many of the games available both online and in its bricks and mortar counterpart including roulette, blackjack and slots, it’s a very diverting place to visit. The only difference is that you probably won’t find yourself rubbing shoulders with any captains of industry or gambling billionaires if you choose the online version.
Also, unsurprisingly, many of the participants manage to fit in a spot of skiing between all the speeches and seminars on the Pischa, Jakobshorn and Rinerhorn slopes as well as enjoying VIP hospitality at the local ice hockey club, HC Davos, who always put on a few exhibition matches during the week.
Then, at the end of the Forum, all the helicopters and limousines who have ferried the illustrious visitors up the mountain whisk them away again, leaving the town to return to peaceful normality.
Peaceful, that is, until the carnival returns next January.
Images:
“Bill Clinton and Klaus Schwab at Davos” (CC BY 2.0) by Robert Scoble
