World Economic Forum 2016: The hidden benefit of all the bigwigs being in Davos

Outlook

Davos ahead of the Annual Meeting 2016 (Reuters)

If you read the business pages you will be aware by now that the World Economic Forum has started. Lots of terribly important people will be wandering around the Swiss ski resort of Davos, being chased by lots of journalists who think being there makes them important, too.

The most important matter of all, of course, is getting your mitts on one of the passes giving you “most exalted” status. It signals that you’ve arrived. When delegates aren’t busy proudly displaying their passes, there are lots of worthy sessions for them to attend, and lots of worthy communiqués to be issued with recommendations about what delegates think should be done to makes things work better.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, real people are getting on with handling the real problems imposed by life and economics; holding down a job, feeding a family, trying to get through another day. Doing that might actually be a bit easier with the bigwigs off in Davos. So there might be a purpose to the annual shindig, after all. Who’d have believed that?