January 28, 1999
The 29th annual World Economic Forum, beginning on Thursday, is not your average summit of leaders, politicians and bureaucrats. A talkfest yes, but a staid meeting of VIPs displaying rigid diplomatic behaviour, not necessarily.
Since 1971, leaders and luminaries from around the world have met in the alpine resort of Davos in Switzerland at this time of year as much to chat, network and gossip as conduct formal deliberations.
Gossip and global issues
Ostensibly the meeting is to discuss issues of global importance, but the laid-down agenda at seminars and private meetings can often take second-place to the chats outside organised sessions that occur in the bars and on the ski slopes.
The guest list is said to be exclusive with numbers limited to 1,000 chief executives, 200 senior government officials, 40 heads of state and hundreds of academics and journalists. Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, US vice-president Al Gore and United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan top the list of political heavyweights this year, along with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, German Chancellor Gerhard Schrí¶der and South African President Nelson Mandela.
Tony Blair will not be there but Chancellor Gordon Brown and Foreign Secretary Robin Cook will make sure the UK contributes its share.
Capitalism well represented
Microsoft's Bill Gates and Time Warner's Ted Turner head a daunting list of business chiefs, representing companies with a combined turnover of $5 trillion (£3 trillion).
Gauging the impact the forum has on the real world post-Davos each year is hard. For example, last January's theme was 'Managing Global Volatility' which was followed by perhaps one of the most volatile years in global history. However, cynics should be reminded of the 1988 Forum which led to the prime ministers of Greece and Turkey agreeing to avoid war after years of heightened tensions between the two, particularly over Cyprus.
Founders Claude Smadja and Klaus Schwab reject ridicule that the Forum is a place where world leaders conspire to impose a brand of reckless capitalism. Promoting peace and prosperity is the aim, they say.
Sublime to the ridiculous?
The serious issues do not get much heavier than Yevgeny Primakov's report on Monday on the economic situation in Russia and his vision for pulling the country out of the crisis.
And the crises in emerging markets will no doubt engender earnest discussion as they did last year - "Can we take the amplitude out of the market without killing it?" is the title of one of the seminars.
But then there are the more offbeat offerings such as the lecture "Understanding the Long Now" by British musician Brian Eno and Danny Hillis of Walt Disney Imagineering. There is also some practical help to which we can all relate: "Why Can't I Sleep?" and "Where Did I leave My Keys? The Mysteries of Memory."
With all these ingredients, the days between now and Tuesday should see plenty of interest coming out of Davos.
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