What is Davos? 7 things to know about the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting

Davos in Switzerland is the highest town in Europe. Yet ever since the World Economic Forum brought its Annual Meeting to the alpine venue, the name resonates with the flagship event.

The meeting brings together government, business and civil society leaders to set the year's agenda for how leaders can make the world a better place for all.

It's relevance as a global gathering sits within and beyond the official programme. The importance of dialogue — often happening in private conversations — reveals an ever important mission to convene leaders when 'threats to world stability are multiplying'.

Established more than 50 years ago, the Annual Meeting tries to embody ‘the spirit of Davos’, which is an attitude of openness and cooperation that is core to the mission of the Forum. The 'Davos Manifesto', created in 1973 and renewed in 2020, lays out the principles of stakeholder capitalism — or a system of shared goals for businesses.

Here are seven things to know about Davos, past and present, answering some of your most frequently asked questions.

Over the years, the programme of the Annual Meeting has focused on the evolving challenges facing the world. Climate change has been a constant theme as has inclusion, diversity and how economies can be developed to meet the needs of everyone.

But the agenda changes every year to address the world's most pressing issues - from pandemic preparedness and reskilling, to the state of the global economy and the energy transition.

The World Economic Forum releases the Global Risks Report ahead of the Annual Meeting each January, to identify and analyse the upcoming near- and longer-term critical global risks that underpin discussions.

Today, the programme contains more than 300 sessions (200 of which are livestreamed to a global audience) that aim to accelerate progress and tackle global challenges. The Forum continues this work year round with a range of initiatives via its centres.

Davos is a platform for decision-makers across the public and private sectors to gather and discuss the major issues of the day. The meetings can lead to business partnerships and political breakthroughs.

In 1988, for instance, Greece and Türkiye averted armed conflict with an agreement finalized at Davos. In the 1990s, Davos hosted a handshake that helped end apartheid in South Africa and served as a platform for the announcement of the UN Global Compact, an initiative that calls on companies to align their operations with human rights principles. More recently, in 2023, the United States used Davos to announce a new development fund programme and global CEOs at the meeting agreed to back a plan to support a free trade agreement in Africa.

While Davos provides a platform for progress to be made, the Forum itself does not influence decisions or remarks made by policymakers and does not dictate public policies.

Davos had been the venue for the Annual Meeting every year until 2002 when, in a gesture of solidarity with the people of New York following the 9/11 attacks in 2001, the Forum held the event in the US city.

When COVID-19 struck, first Davos 2021 and then Davos 2022 went entirely digital as the 'Davos Agenda'. The in-person Davos 2022 was rescheduled to May 2022 with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine high on the agenda.

January 2023 saw a return to the usual winter slot, and with careful health measures in place, the meeting marked the beginning of the end of three years of global pandemic.

Davos is an invitation-only event that brings together heads of state and private-sector leaders as well as many of the leading voices from civil society and academia.

This includes politicians from across the political spectrum, change-makers in the private sector and the top minds from various areas of expertise. It also includes activists, artists, labour leaders, Indigenous community members and prominent youth voices.

The global public can watch and engage with the Annual Meeting through livestreamed sessions, social media and virtual connections to Forum hubs, centres and projects around the world.

Davos has nevertheless weathered criticism as a gathering of elites, but the stereotype of the so-called 'Davos Man' is less relevant today as 'issues of social inclusion and environmentalism' have taken precedence. In 2024, Davos attendees came from 125 countries, involving the following Forum communities:

Aligning with the Forum's Global Gender Gap Report, launched in 2005, Davos strives to be a gender-equal platform. In recent years, women have made up a quarter of attendees, a higher proportion than among world or business leaders.

In 2018, there was an all-female line up of co-chairs for the meeting. Together, they also made up the first all-female panel of Davos co-chairs, sending a powerful message as the shockwaves of the #metoo movement spread.

In 2025, the goal is to achieve near parity for session moderation roles.

The Global Gender Gap Report has become one of the most closely analysed annual benchmarking exercises and the Forum runs an increasing number of taskforces in various countries to work with governments and businesses to speed up progress towards parity.

Following its founding in 1971 by Professor Klaus Schwab, the European Management Symposium (EMS), as it was then known, held its first meeting in Davos.

Participants discussed Schwab’s 'stakeholder theory', his vision that businesses should serve all stakeholders, rather just shareholders, including employees, suppliers and the wider community. Today, stakeholder capitalism is a guiding principle of the Forum.

In 1973, the Annual Meeting endorsed the Davos Manifesto, a code of ethics for business leaders which was updated in 2020 to set out the purpose of business in the Fourth Industrial Revolution - itself a concept coined by Professor Schwab in his 2016 book.

Politicians were first invited to take part in Davos in 1974, and in 1987 the EMS became the World Economic Forum, with a broadened aim to provide a platform to address the pressing issues of the day via public-private cooperation.

The Forum recognizes the severity of the climate crisis and does its best to boost sustainability at Davos.

Since 2017, all Davos-related CO2 emissions have been calculated and offset through environmental projects in Switzerland and abroad. The Forum also ensures that energy consumption at Davos is limited and that only renewable electricity is used for the event.

Moreover, the Forum takes steps to reduce waste. These efforts include the use of repurposed event materials, the removal of single-use plastics and collaborations with local associations to distribute non-used furniture and food leftovers.

Transportation remains the primary source of CO2 emissions at Davos. Therefore, the Forum encourages attendees to travel in the most sustainable manner and offers a 100% discount for all participants in Europe who travel by train.

Davos also serves as an opportunity to showcase climate research and sound the alarm on the many pressing climate-related issues. At Davos 2019, David Attenborough delivered a powerful address on the 'new geological age', and in 2023 US climate envoy John Kerry called for the “biggest transformation, economically, since the industrial revolution.”

For more on sustainability efforts at Davos, see here.

Many of the governments, companies and international organization who attend Davos put on sideline events outside of the Annual Meeting venue. These events — which can include dinners, parties, exhibitions, industry meetings and bilateral talks — are funded and planned by the host organizations.

The Forum is not involved with many of the external sideline events that take place in Davos during the week of the Annual Meeting.