World Economic Forum

The World Economic Forum (WEF) is a Geneva-based foundation whose Annual Meeting of chief executives of the world's richest corporations, some national political leaders (presidents, prime ministers and others), and selected intellectuals and journalists, about 2000 people in all, is usually held in Davos, Switzerland. There are also regional meetings throughout the year. It was founded in 1971 by Klaus M. Schwab, a business professor in Switzerland, and has helped fund his family foundation, the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship.

Regional meetings

The WEF holds between five and ten regional meetings per year, enabling close contact between corporate business leaders, local government leaders and NGOs. The mix of regions varies from year to year, but the meetings in Africa, China and India have been held consistently over the past decade. The European Competitiveness Summit planned for October 2003 in Dublin, was cancelled. Protestors hypothesise that the Dublin meeting was cancelled because city authorities and/or WEF organisers were worried about holding the meeting in the face of massive, peaceful, organised, radically transparent, informed protest. However, the official reason for cancellation was that a report, the European Competitiveness Report would not be ready in time for the Summit. A much larger European meeting was indeed held in Warsaw, Poland a few months later, where the European Competitiveness Report was indeed launched.

Related Topics:
2003 - Dublin - Radically transparent

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