Davos refers to an annual economic, business, academic, and social Forum held in Davos’s Swiss Ski retreat that unifies the most influential global leaders, charities, and business entrepreneurs.

What is the World Economic Forum (WFE)?

The World Economic Forum represents an international non-profit organization founded in 1971 in Switzerland by Klaus Schwab. The founder of the Forum is a business professor at the University of Geneva. Its first name was the European Management Forum, before changing it in 1987 to The World Economic Forum. Its main principles stand for improving the world’s economic, political, social, academic, and business scene while positively influencing the global and regional industrial agenda.

Currently, the Worlds Economic Forum should be held every January in Davos hence the name Davos Forum. It’s important to state that this meeting brings together more than 3000 political leaders, business entrepreneurs, economists, charities, celebrities for about five days, including 500 assemblies.

Besides the regular annual meetings held in Davos, this organization hosts around seven regional gatherings located in Asia, Africa, India, China, and the United Arab Emirates.

The WFE also provides a platform to support all stakeholders’ business and governmental groups to reinforce collaborating on numerous projects globally.

Some users use this unique opportunity and hold private meetings as a chance to work on business investments in their country.

Figures that have primarily influenced the global agenda so far at the Davos Forum include Greta Thunberg, Donald Trump, Angela Merkel, David Attenborough, Prince Williams, etc.

Common Misconceptions

There have been inevitable controversy regarding the modern form of the Davos Forum. It is often criticized as elitist and secretive, which does not represent an objective look at the whole thing. Although Davos’ structure is considered confidential, in reality, the WEF can be spectated live with around 150 sessions and numerous liveblogs accessible online.

Furthermore, some individuals perceive the whole concept as traditional as it gathers only wealthy and powerful social groups, while the majority of members are male.

Justly, things seem to be improving in the last couple of years since the percentage of female participants rose to 24 percent. The World Economic Forum launched an initiative in 2005 to double the number of female members in the next ten years.

As mentioned before, Davos participants meet throughout the whole year to work on that year’s schedule and collaborate simultaneously, not only once a year.

One of the most common misconceptions revolves around the business aspect when, in fact, there is a lot more to Davos. A lot of entrepreneurs and speakers consistently promote the battle against poverty and inequality as two primary goals.

The environment, human rights, civil-war, debt, improvement of the world economy, business and social system are only some of the Davos Forum’s chief principles.

What Happens at Davos?

To help understand the functioning system of the Forum, we’ll state a couple of real examples and ideas held here:

1. In 2019, the event members dealt with poverty issues where the Forum agreed with the Red Cross and the World Bank to invest private sector capital in fragile and low economies.
2. Women’s rights-The main parole behind this principle is” Closing the Gender Gap” in Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, France, Peru and Panama.
3. Enforcing and empowering the LGBT community
4. Committing around 260 million dollars to understand anxiety and depression while expanding the budget for battling mental illness.
5. Eliminating electronic waste and plastic pollution
6. Since Peru is the home to the Amazon Forest; its representation joined the Tropical Forest Alliance-to reduce deforestation
7. Davos Forum held in January 2020 focused on understanding and reshaping capitalism and saving the planet by planting trees.
8. Davos is the place where North and South Korea held their first meeting in  1989 and where Greece and Macedonia settled over the title of Macedonia as a separate country in 2018.

Davos 2020

Reuters report that there were more than 3000 attendees, including world leaders like Donald Trump and Angella Merkel, Ivanka Trump, US Secretary Steven Munchin, Jared Kushner, Gretta Thunberg, Priyanka Chopra Jones, Bill Gates, George Soros, Marc Benioff as well as world stars like Shakira, Matt Damon, Forrest Whitaker, former Alibaba chairman Jack Ma.

There was only one Iranian on the guestlist- Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif. He cancelled his trip because of tensions with the United States over the killing of Quassem Soleimani.

Accessibility

So who can attend the Davos Forum?

You can only attend this event by invitation, making it very exclusive and reserved for the most prominent individuals, and free for most participants. Never the less, all participants have to pay The World Economic Forum yearly fee of 60000 Swiss Franks depending on the form of membership. Still, those who came to represent a specific company have to pay around 27000 Swiss franks just to participate.

Davos Forum is a significant event for the Swiss Economy as the prices of accommodations this time of the year tend to increase by about five times, especially at the Belvedere and the Intercontinental Hotel (which are both sold out every year). Since this event’s members represent the most influential people on the planet, anyone lucky enough to get invited or represent a company should pay attention to details.

As appearance is everything and the Swiss generally appreciate pleasing aesthetics, consider renting out a limousine service to get around at Davos forum comfortably, safely and with much-needed style. Besides the apparent reasons, hiring a certified and legit limo service will grant you direct transportation from the airport while being both time-saving and precise.

Davos 2021

The World Economic Forum published on the 27 August of 2020 that the annual Davos Forum will be rescheduled for early next summer and held in Luzern.

This decision wasn’t welcomed amidst the whole covid crisis. However, the organization considers January way too early to hold the convention following The World Health Organization’s recommendations for fighting Covid-19.

The Davos 2021 theme is called “The Great Reset,” gathering numerous ideas, panels, speeches and discussions to help recover the post corona global scene.

However, we’re happy to state that the World Economic Forum will host a set of online discussions in January.

Covid-19

Besides the apparent health risk, the corona epidemic vastly influenced the global economic scene. The World Economic Forum released the Stakeholders Principle as a part of “The Covid Live Platform,” challenging companies to include stakeholders by encouraging businesses to collaborate and fight the destabilization of the market and global health issues by showing solitude and stability.

The Stakeholders Principles enforce:

• To keep employees safe
• For suppliers and customers, to secure their continuity
• To withhold fair prices and essential supplies
• To show full support to governments and the whole society

Does Davos Really Make a Difference?

Since all these terms mentioned above don’t mean much to an average person, let’s take a second and reflect on the most innovative goals and ideas related to Davos Forum.

Most vocal speakers accentuate the following subjects:

• How to sustain the enormous carbon footprint emitting 70 percent of the emission.
• How to help cities adapt to a hotter planet?
• Controlling air pollution
• Forming a clean and efficient public transport
• Resetting government agenda
• Diverting from fossil fuels
• Finding innovative solutions
• Forming a sustainable market

Summary

All in all, Davos Forum represents a vital global meeting gathering more than 3000 members who try to tackle the most significant global issues while reshaping the regional economic scene. Besides fighting leading financial matters, the World Economic Forum tries to settle the Gender Gap and reinforce the female part of the population.

Global Warming is often the leading subject, considering how fast nature is deteriorating alongside fossil fuel and inefficient energy waste.

Now, in 2020 we came across another problem when Covid-19 caused a global pandemic. Meanwhile, Davos’s organization issued StakeHolders Principle, focusing on implementing sustainable ideas in the most prominent companies policy.

Some experts and critics claim that the whole concept is too elitist and causes enormous public costs. However, participants pay a yearly membership of 60000 franks, while company representatives pay around 27000 to participate.

Although the event has been postponed to May of 2021, The World Economic Forum will still hold digital conventions organized to help better the world and make it a healthier place.

If you can be a part of the next Forum, don’t miss out since it represents a unique event. To make it count, those of you lucky enough to witness this historical event can rent out a limousine to arrive at the venue safely, comfortably, and with style.