What Davos Looks Like When the World Economic Forum Is Cancel

Before the pandemic, “Davos” came to connote not simply the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum itself, but a state of mind. Pro-capitalism, pro-democracy, pro-globalization, Davos is the spiritual home of the stakeholder capitalism movement (which encourages companies to be better corporate citizens) and a testing ground for any number of new win-win market-oriented solutions to combat climate change, ameliorate hunger and repair frayed international relations.

More practically, Davos also came to refer to an entire universe of satellite events, subconferences and loosely affiliated marketing stunts that all took place in Switzerland throughout mid-January. Facebook constructed a temporary headquarters on the town’s main thoroughfare, known as the Promenade. Salesforce held a private lunch in a giant geodesic dome.

Yet no matter what party might be going on or which company had the best off-site augmented reality installation, the inner sanctum of Davos has always been the Congress Centre, a convention space that serves as the gathering’s nexus and main stage. It is where, in 2020, you might have found Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany or President Donald J. Trump addressing a crowd of thousands while, in an adjacent lobby area, Jane Goodall took in a demonstration of Google’s new mapping technology.

Normally packed with lanyard-wearing conference goers hustling from a meditation session led by monks to a panel discussion about sovereign wealth funds, the halls of the Congress Centre are, for the time being at least, empty.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/16/business/davos-world-economic-forum.html