What Happened (and Didn’t) When Davos Disappeared
Summary
The DealBook newsletter delves into a single topic or theme every weekend, providing reporting and analysis that offers a better understanding of an important issue in the news. In recent years, questioning the ongoing existence of the World Economic Forum’s annual confab in Davos became almost as much of a ritual as the event itself. Each January, mainstream media outlets would publish headlines like “Does Davos still matter?”, “Is the World Economic Forum in Davos still relevant?” and “Does the world need Davos?”, even as those same publications sent their correspondents to report on all the hot air being spewed in the Alps. For the second year in a row, the annual in-person meeting in Davos was scrapped because of the pandemic. An IRL gathering was announced for late May, but the relatively last-minute cancellation makes it easier to assess what has until recently been a hypothetical debate: Would it matter if Davos just went away?