The World Economic Forum starts today in Davos, Switzerland, and The New York Times says the high-altitude meeting of high-powered individuals has a revised slate of high-profile guests. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who caused a stir last year, won’t be there. “We noticed there was undue publicity given to the attendance of those celebrities at the last meeting,” organizer Klaus Schwab told The Times. “We have to be careful that we are not hijacked by the celebrity world.”
Regulars like Bill Clinton won’t be there, and Condoleezza Rice declined an invitation to speak. But the confab will draw 24 heads of state or government, 85 cabinet ministers, and more than 800 corporate chiefs, among them YouTube’s Chad Hurley, Senator John McCain, Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Rupert Murdoch, and Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. British Prime Minister Tony Blair will deliver the closing speech.
“The power shift is twofold,” Schwab said. “Power is shifting from the center to the periphery, and from the top to the bottom.”
Another change: With so many blogs covering the event (including the Davos Diary by reporters from The Times and The International Herald Tribune), organizers are aggregating them for attendees. And Schwab says he may need to rethink reporters’ guidelines, which put some sessions off the record. (The Davos Diary already has items about the related parties, including Google’s.)
But rest assured that not everything’s changing. Bono will be back.
Posted 01.24.07
Regulars like Bill Clinton won’t be there, and Condoleezza Rice declined an invitation to speak. But the confab will draw 24 heads of state or government, 85 cabinet ministers, and more than 800 corporate chiefs, among them YouTube’s Chad Hurley, Senator John McCain, Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Rupert Murdoch, and Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. British Prime Minister Tony Blair will deliver the closing speech.
“The power shift is twofold,” Schwab said. “Power is shifting from the center to the periphery, and from the top to the bottom.”
Another change: With so many blogs covering the event (including the Davos Diary by reporters from The Times and The International Herald Tribune), organizers are aggregating them for attendees. And Schwab says he may need to rethink reporters’ guidelines, which put some sessions off the record. (The Davos Diary already has items about the related parties, including Google’s.)
But rest assured that not everything’s changing. Bono will be back.
Posted 01.24.07
