TIMES.KY

Cayman Islands, Caribbeanand International News
Tuesday, Mar 28, 2023

Davos is dead

Davos is dead

The world’s most elite conference is postponed, again.
Hold the caviar and put the mink back in the closet.

Davos is dead, again. The glitzy and eagerly awaited World Economic Forum annual meeting scheduled for the Swiss mountain resort on Jan. 17-21 has been shelved for the second year in a row, replaced by a series of online discussions.

The postponement — due to Omicron’s emergence — is the latest in a series of failed efforts by WEF to return to in-person meetings during the Covid-19 pandemic, and puts financial pressure on the organization, with tens of millions of dollars of event income at risk.

In 2020, WEF’s Davos conference attracted more than 100 billionaires and 53 heads of state or government. Companies — still mostly from the U.S. and Europe — pay around $50,000 per person for a coveted “white badge” to access this guest list.

WEF’s event fee income dropped from around $45 million in 2020 to zero in 2021. Membership and partnership fees range from $65,000 to $650,000, “depending on the level of engagement,” per WEF.

Membership fee income was down $7.5 million in 2021, with companies such as BT, a European telecoms giant, cutting ties. “We took the decision to end our partnership with the WEF earlier this year,” Richard Farnsworth, a BT spokesperson, told POLITICO.

Local businesses in Davos — Europe’s highest altitude town — depend heavily on the influx of rich visitors each January. While each company is allowed only five white badge holders, entourages of lower-level executives, assistants, drivers and chefs can number more than 100 for the largest companies attending.

Shops and bars are turned into elaborate pavilions and exhibition spaces, while the going rate for a bunk bed in an apartment is close to $1,000 per night. Don’t ask about the chalet prices.

Organizers are hoping to shift the 2022 Davos conference to summer 2022, but a similar plan to move the event to a literal island of Covid safety fell flat in 2021.

Klaus Schwab, WEF’s executive chair, announced with fanfare in December 2020 that the winter Davos conference would move to Singapore in May 2021 as a way to escape the pandemic. That plan was then delayed until August 2021 and eventually canceled altogether after a local surge in Covid-19 cases.

Amanda Russo, a WEF spokesperson, downplayed the impact of postponing the 2022 conference. “The annual meeting is just one touch point alongside the day-to-day work of our nearly 20 platforms. Our partners sign on as members to work year-round,” Russo told POLITICO.

Following the emergence of the Omicron variant in November, WEF successfully scrambled to pause — until the week after the scheduled January event — a new Swiss rule requiring 10-day quarantine for foreign visitors that would have upended the Davos conference.

Hundreds of executives parachute into the Swiss mountain resort each year for the conference, many of them on private jets, and some of them for as little as 24 hours: a schedule incompatible with quarantining.

Does Cristal make a sound if only 100 people hear it popping?

Even with a pause on quarantine rules, Davos event planners had been flummoxed in recent weeks by a series of changing local restrictions, including severe limits on the number of attendees at private events, and concerns that the event would eventually be canceled.

Davos stalwarts including the Wall Street Journal and CNBC called off plans for their regular pavilions and lounge spaces. Companies such as JPMorgan meanwhile wondered whether to go ahead with their evening receptions at cavernous local art galleries, if those spaces had to remain nearly empty to comply with Covid rules.

WEF sought to reassure its stakeholders via email and its exclusive Toplink social platform in early December that the event would proceed. Even so, regular Davos attendees remained skeptical that the event could proceed as planned.

“As a crisis manager, we had doomsday scenario planning in our recommendation to clients anyway,” said one consultant at a Washington lobbying and public affairs firm. “You simply have to do that in 2022, or ‘2020: Part Three’ as I am calling it.”

WEF remains upbeat, for now.

“The deferral of the annual meeting will not prevent progress through continued digital convening of leaders from business, government and civil society,” Schwab said.

While some aspects of WEF’s work continue to expand — such as a Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics program that has grown to include more than 100 companies — the next challenge for WEF is more practical: dealing with badge-holders requesting refunds on their tickets.

Davos badges are "100 percent refundable until the start of the meeting," per a WEF document obtained by POLITICO. But CEOs' expense reports might be stuck eating the hotel suites and unopened cases of Cristal.
Newsletter

Related Articles

TIMES.KY
Close
0:00
0:00
Brand new security footage has just been released to the public showing the Active shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale drove to Covenant Church School in her Honda Fit this morning, parked, and shot her way into the building
AMERICA, 2023
U.S. charges FTX's Bankman-Fried with paying $40 million bribe
Fallen 'Crypto King' Who Owes Millions to Investors Was Kidnapped and Tortured
Regulators blame social media for SVB's rapid collapse: 'Complete game changer'
AOC explains why she opposes banning TikTok
UK: Humza Yousaf replaces Nicola Sturgeon as SNP leader and first minister in Scotland
In a dramatic U-turn against His Government: Judicial Reform Legislation Must Be Halted, Says Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant
Gordon Moore, a co-founder of Intel Corporation, died at 94
Powell: Silicon Valley Bank was an 'outlier'
Donald Trump arrested – Twitter goes wild with doctored pictures
NYPD is setting up barricades outside Manhattan Criminal Court ahead of Trump arrest.
Credit Suisse's Scandalous History Resulted in an Obvious Collapse - It's time for regulators who fail to do their job to be held accountable and serve as an example by being behind bars.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman tours potential migrant housing in Rwanda as asylum deal remains mired in legal challenges
Paris Rioting vs Macron anti democratic law
'Sexual Fantasy' Assignment At US School Outrages Parents
Credit Suisse to borrow $54 billion from Swiss central bank
Russian Hackers Preparing New Cyber Assault Against Ukraine
Jeremy Hunt insists his Budget will get young parents and over-50s back into work
If this was in Tehran, Moscow or Hong Kong
TRUMP: "Standing before you today, I am the only candidate who can make this promise: I will prevent World War III."
Mexican President Claims Mexico is Safer than the U.S.
A brief banking situation report
Lady bites police officer and gets instantly reaction
We are witnessing widespread bank fails and the president just gave a 5 min speech then walked off camera.
Donald Trump's asked by Tucker Carlson question on if the U.S. should support regime change in Russia?.
Silicon Valley Bank exec was Lehman Brothers CFO
In a potential last-ditch effort, HSBC is considering a rescue deal to save Silicon Valley Bank UK from insolvency
BBC Director General, Tim Davie, has apologized, but not resigned, yet, following the disruption of sports programmes over the weekend
Elon Musk Is Planning To Build A Town In Texas For His Employees
The Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse effect is spreading around the world, affecting startup companies across the globe
City officials in Berlin announced on Thursday that all swimmers at public pools will soon be allowed to swim topless
Fitness scam
Market Chaos as USDC Loses Peg to USD after $3.3 Billion Reserves Held by Silicon Valley Bank Closed.
Senator Tom Cotton: If the Mexican Government Won’t Stop Cartels from Killing Americans, Then U.S. Government Should
Banking regulators close SVB, the largest bank failure since the financial crisis
The unelected UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, an immigrant himself, defends new controversial crackdown on illegal migration
Man’s penis amputated by mistake after he’s wrongly diagnosed with a tumour
In a major snub to Downing Street's Silicon Valley dreams, UK chip giant Arm has dealt a serious blow to the government's economic strategy by opting for a US listing
It's the question on everyone's lips: could a four-day workweek be the future of employment?
Is Gold the Ultimate Safe Haven Asset in Times of Uncertainty?
Spain officials quit over trains that were too wide for tunnels...
Don Lemon, a CNN anchor, has provided a list of five areas that he believes the black community needs to address.
Hello. Here is our news digest from London.
Corruption and Influence Buying Uncovered in International Mainstream Media: Investigation Reveals Growing Disinformation Mercenaries
Givenchy Store in New York Robbed of $50,000 in Merchandise
European MP Clare Daly condemns US attack on Nord Stream
Former U.S. President Carter will spend his remaining time at home and receive hospice care instead of medication
Tucker Carlson called Trump a 'demonic force'
US Joins 15 NATO Nations in Largest Space Data Collection Initiative in History
×