The World Economic Forum is on this week for those of us wondering what all those kids who took Model UN (United Nations) a bit too seriously in school are up to these days. To the people in the know, it’s simply known as Davos after its location – a ski resort in the Swiss Alps. We can only speculate this location was chosen because the words “Swiss,” “ski,” and “resort” sound expensive. But it’s more likely to do with the fact that attendees skew into the “global elite” income bracket and this venue lets them indulge in signature rich person hobbies like wearing cashmere jumpers and doing physically dangerous things in inhospitable climates just to feel something.
Ostensibly, the purpose is to gather the best and brightest for an invitation only conference to come up with ways to make the world better. That is exactly the kind of description that lends itself to conspiracy theorists who believe a secretive club of influential and powerful people secretly rule in the world to the detriment of everyone else. It should be praised for the range of paranoid beliefs it fits really – from the Illuminati, to the New World Order to lizard people secretly taking over Earth. It’s a gold mine for people who use the term “mainstream media” a lot in comment sections. Last year saw disinformation fighters and fact checkers work overtime to assure the public that an exclusive cabal of business leaders, billionaires, politicians and celebrities were not in fact planning to eradicate all cats and dogs, or replace meat with insect protein for poor people (a theory taken from the 2013 movie Snowpiercer) in the name of stability. The World Economic Forum really did itself no favours in 2020 when it initiated an economic recovery plan titled The Great Reset. But at least Covid-19 and population control conspiracists probably found it gratifying in an “I told you so” way.
The problem with these kinds of conferences that pull the “best and brightest” heads together is how those people are decided. In this case, the “best and the brightest” just happens to be attendees from the 1,000 or so organisation members who help fund it. This year there are reportedly 2,800 on the guest list, many from name-brand multinational companies and investment funds listed on their “partners” page such as Apple.
It’s expected more than 60 heads of state and government will attend including Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiyand Israel’s president Yitzhak Herzog. Perhaps in a nod to how geopolitically awkward things have become, neither the British prime minister nor US president are set to attend this year. Or the optics of flying into Switzerland on a private jet to hang out with billionaires in a posh resort while their voters are struggling to pay heating bills. Either way, spare a thought for Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary general of Nato, who is at Davos this year. He probably hasn’t been able to finish a single mini-quiche without someone tapping him on the shoulder mid-mouthful and asking “can I have a sec?”
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There are different levels and layers to Davos. Not all wristbands and lanyards are equal with some getting you access to “closed-door” meetings. Then there’s the extra exclusive events some companies put on like Salesforce hiring Idris Elba a number of years ago to DJ their party in a five-star hotel rented for the occasion. This is Electric Picnic and their corporate sponsored secret backstage bars but for people who wear branded tech company gilets. Some are here to meet rock stars, some are here to find a job, some are here to take photos for their LinkedIn and some are here to buy access to global leaders for what I’m sure are only altruistic reasons.
While it’s easy (and fun) to dismiss the event as a mutual backslap-athon between powerful global players in the past it has allowed attendees to call each other out on issues. Who can forget historian Rutger Bregman telling off a room of assembled billionaires in 2019. After mentioning tax avoidance and the fact some took private jets to hear about how to save the planet he told the crowd “it feels like I’m at a firefighters conference and no one’s allowed to speak about water”. Bregman might have been off the guest list for a private party with rapper Wyclef Jean that year but he was allowed to be honest.
Critics of Davos slam the conference for assuming that we should listen to chief executives and other rich people (mainly men) to tell us how to solve the world’s problems. But the reality is we already look to rich men to tell us what to do. What about if we had alternative guest speakers that could actually change things. Like hearing from a mother who broke the cycle of poverty about how she did it and what would have helped her situation. Someone who has lived through addiction about flaws in the current recovery process. A former factory worker who lost their job due to automation and how it impacted their financial prospects. An asylum seeker trying to establish life again in a hostile system. Then these leaders might learn something useful and make a difference.