OPINION: The AFR’s Europe correspondent reflects on a bewildering week of trying to distil the Davos vibe.
| I’m coming out of a toilet cubicle in a hotel in Davos, and there at the sink is the CEO of a major mining company. “Hello,” I say. “This probably isn’t the best moment for a handshake,” he observes.. Participants may be stratified, by pass colour, into more ranks than you’d find in the British army. All the best meetings and parties might be closed-door, invitation-only.
Beyond that, though, everyone’s Davos is different. If you’re a US bank executive, you’ll have a suite or shopfront, a bevy of minions, a host of eager clients filling up your calendar, and sheaf of party invites.If you’re a tech or crypto bro, you’ll be hanging out in the tech companies’ networking hubs, going to the panels on AI or blockchain, and drinking way too much free coffee.
All of this is supposed to create, or distil – take your pick – some kind of vibe or zeitgeist, that helps the captains of industry understand where the world is at. But the WEF’s account of what Davos is, and is for, only scratches the surface. Many people disappear into their own sectoral echo chambers. And most of the important stuff isn’t found on the WEF livestream.
At Davos, you can do that kind of business, and have those exchanges, in a way that is far less constrained by protocols and agendas than at almost any other forum. Therein lies its value, which justifies the hefty price of admission.
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