Back to snow: World Economic Forum reverts to January for 2023 gathering

The World Economic Forum will revert to January for its 2023 annual meeting in the Swiss ski resort of Davos after moving to the spring for the first time due to the coronavirus pandemic.
After a hiatus of more than two years, the annual gathering this year attracted a mix of global political and business leaders, who met amid the usual high security.
Many participants at this year's event, which ends on Thursday, have welcomed occasional sunshine, alpine spring flowers and screeching swifts circling overhead as a welcome change from sub-zero temperatures and perilous icy sidewalks. Others have missed the winter wonderland atmosphere.

"There's never been anything like this, walking around not slipping and falling on the ice and bundling up with coats and jackets in the snow, it's actually fun," Jay Collins, Citigroup's Vice Chairman of Banking, Capital Markets and Advisory, said this week.

"I love winter in Davos, I've been doing it for years, but I definitely think springtime has been a nice change,"

The event is scheduled for Jan. 15-20 in 2023, provided that there are no problems as a result of COVID or other issues, a WEF official told Reuters on Thursday.

After a coronavirus-enforced cancellation in 2021 and the postponement of the event from January 2022, many participants asked by Reuters about its relevance said the WEF event remains a unique talking shop.

"The WEF and Davos is a unique forum for leaders from across industry - public, private - from across the globe to come together to talk about some of the most pressing issues that face the globe," Dave Fredrickson, AstraZeneca's Executive Vice-President of Oncology, told Reuters this week.

But there are also questions about its relevance at a time of global fragmentation and public scepticism.

A survey https://glocalities.com/news/wef%E2%80%9D by international research agency Glocalities found broad public mistrust of the WEF just months before the event.

The poll in February and March of more than 26,000 respondents in 25 countries found nearly four out of 10 said they did not trust the WEF, compared to slightly fewer than three out of 10 who said they did, with the rest undecided.

"The survey data clearly show that trust in the WEF is closely related to the larger crisis of trust," said Martijn Lampert, research director at Amsterdam-based Glocalities.