SacredFacts

Davos 07: getting up the mountain

A much delayed flight from london to zurich was packed with davos delegates. I recognised at least  a dozen journalists, five CEOs and a former business school dean - and that was just from my seat. The train up the mountain saw the laptops, blackberries and mobile phones come out - thicker than the snow outside which was unseasonally sparse. And as we all tipped out at Davos, the egos were in evidence. Quote - Yes I know the office is shut but I need my accreditation pass. Klaus Schwab knows me well....   

Ah the all important accreditation pass. Different colours denote different levels of access - and therefore importance. They are essential for navigating through intense security. And they are the genesis of the famous Davos dip. This is when someone meets you and instead of looking at you bobs their head to read your name and title on your card worn mid chest. Its just part of the frenzied networking and the quickest way of checking if you are worth talking to.

Only one event today - a drink for Davos bloggers. Jeff Jarvis, Arianna Huffington, Dave Sifry, Will Lewis the new editor of the Telegraph, Ben Hammersley and more...

The forum is brave to encourage blogging given the event is based around private and off the record conversations. They got burned two years ago when comments made by Eason Jordan at an off the record event about US troops targetting journalists exploded in the blogs and led to his resignation. The rules appear to be that major sessions in the big hall are on the record - everything else is Chatham House rules - ie no names without their permission.   The OTR basis of the event is rather at odds with the blogging culture of openness and transparency - lets see what happens.  Enough colour - tomorrow some meat.

Blogging Davos

For the rest of this week I will be blogging from the World Economic Forum at Davos. Posts should be available here and also occasionally here......(rumour has it temperatures will be minus 9...)

Davos 07: mountain retreat

Next week I'm going to the World Economic Forum in Davos - the annual conference for global business leaders, politicians, NGOs, media execs and a smattering of celebrities. This year's theme is "The Shifting Power Equation" - an interesting ackowledgement of the impact of technology and media, globalisation, the rise of the east and social change. This year, the organisers are attempting to use technology to open up discussion and make it easier for people around the world to ask questions to leaders and "join the debate". They have launched the Davos Conversation and partnered with BBC News, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, Buzzmachine and Daylife.com to pull together blog posts (tag: davos07) questions and video contributions on YouTube. Jeff Jarvis explains how it will work here. Arianna Huffington gives her perspective here. Georgina Henry from the Guardian here. The BBC coverage will start on Monday. I will be blogging for the BBC and the Davos Conversation and will mirror some of it on this site.

Initial reaction to the initiative has been, predictably, a bit sceptical. It is obviously limited in how many people can get their questions directly answered, and some distrust of the event - a VIPs retreat with a few of the hoi polloi (like me) allowed in. But I think it's a genuine attempt to harness social media and provide access.

Among those there -
Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority;
King Abdullah II Ibn Hussein of Jordan;
Bertie Ahern, prime minister of Ireland;
Prince Albert II of Monaco;
Ilham Aliyev, president of Azerbaijan;
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, president of the Philippines;
Shaukat Aziz, prime minister of Pakistan;
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, prime minister of Malaysia;
Tony Blair, prime minister of the United Kingdom;
Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, president of Mexico;
Jakaya M Kikwete, president of Tanzania;
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, president of Brazil;
Thabo Mbeki, president of South Africa;
Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany;
Ahmed Mahmoud Nazif, prime minister of Egypt;
Nguyen Tan Dung, prime minister of Vietnam;
Fouad Siniora, prime minister of Lebanon;
Viktor Yanukovych, prime minister of Ukraine.
M El Baradei, director general, International Atomic Energy Agency;
Pascal Lamy, director general, World Trade Organisation (WTO);
Paul D Wolfowitz, president, World Bank;
Koichiro Matsuura, director general, Unesco;
Bono, Peter Gabriel, Gordon Brown, JOhn Browne, Bill Gates...

You know, the usual crowd.

Submit your questions via any of the partner sites...