Why Davos doesn´t matter….according to Time

In this article Tony Karon of Time explains to us “Why Davos doesn´t Matter”. The main point of the piece is to say that the people who used to rule the world rule it less now. Instead humanity is now more and more managed by people who don´t go to Davos such as the Chinese leadership or in a strange way, Hamas. For those of us who were at Davos 2000 we can certainly see the change now. In 2000 not only were the most important leaders of the world present at Davos including Bill Clinton, Tony Blair then in power and many others, but the “Davos Man” philosophy was only challenged by the anarchist anti Davos forces who seemed to be more interested in depriving us of junk food than in proposing a real alternative development model. But today as Davos becomes less relevant even the anti globalization forces stopped protesting at Davos and are now focused on other venues. At the same time Davos continues to be a real treat for attendees who see it as an opportunity to hang out with good friends and learn about relevant trends around the world. Those who go to Davos including good friends of mine greatly enjoy it. But Tony Karon has a point and that is that the combined power of Davos attendees has greatly decreased together with the decline on a global scale of the relative weight of USA and Europe. Moreover, even Nicolas Sarkozy who would have been the ideal candidate to revive the “Davos spirit” chose to stay out of the conference not to be seen as part of the “rich and famous” club. The debt implosion of USA and the absurd financial gambles of one of Europe´s largest banks also combined to make the Davos proposition less credible. Would this be the end of Davos? I don´t think so. The World Economic Forum is already making big inroads into the new centers of power in the world such as China (this year I attended the “Davos in Dalian” event in September. So as world power shifts geography…. so will WEF and the new Davos man will be Asian.