BREAKING the ice is especially important in a place as cold as Davos. And whether you are a Hollywood star or a star of the boardroom, there is no better way of introducing yourself to a fellow delegate than by recounting a horror story about the journey that delivered you to the top of an alp not far from the border with Austria.
Over the next five days more than 2,340 participants from 89 countries will make the Swiss village their home for the 35th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. The theme of this year’s gathering is “The Creative Imperative” and delegates will be challenged to use imagination, innovation and creativity to address the major issues that face the world.
This year a record 735 delegates will be swapping their chariman’s or chief executive’s pin-stripes for snow shoes and woolly jumpers. British-based executives include Matt Barrett of Barclays Bank, Sir Richard Branson of Virgin, Patrick Cescau of Unilever, John Allan of Exel, now owned by Deutsche Post World Net, Tom Glocer of Reuters, Lakshmi Mittal of Mittal Steel and Arun Sarin of Vodafone.
Participants from the US include George Soros, the billionaire investor, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google, and John Thain, the chief executive of the New York Stock Exchange.
While many business delegates will sample the debates, interactive seminars and official discussions that the programme has to offer, much more business will be conducted behind closed doors in bilateral meetings.