By Alec Hogg
Getting into the WEF annual meeting in Davos is an achievement in itself. Participation is by invitation only with strict quotas for each of the groups represented. Around half of the 2 500 delegates come from the business sector – half of whom are the chief executives or chairmen of the WEF’s funders, its over 1 000 corporate members.
These business executives are complemented by around 50 heads of State and a few hundred Government Ministers from the world’s Top 25 economies. The political world is also represented by dozens of Governors and Mayors of the world’s top regions and cities. Leaders from civil society are drawn from international NGOs; trades union and religions. Glamour is added through the occasional big name from the movies, music and sport (Bono is a regular; Angelina Jolie, Emma Thompson have been a few times; ditto Pele and Muhammad Ali).
Brainpower is added through the Presidents of the world’s major universities; leaders of international think-tanks; experts on topics being focused upon in that year’s programme; publishers, editors-in- chief and columnists of media organisations; and the heads of the WEF’s Global Agenda Councils. To this mostly mature group are added the current class of Young Global Leaders and Technology Pioneers.
The make-up of South Africa’s group mirrors overall participation with just over half of them business executives. Team SA is usually led by the President supported by members of his cabinet but last year Jacob Zuma was a notable absentee. There’s a strong representation this year from parastatals while others in the group are from NGOs, academia and three media fellows.
In conjunction with BrightRock, we have taken to sharing the stories from our recently published World Economic Forum starter pack, ‘A Veterans Guide to Surviving Davos’ PDF with you – To download the full document, follow this link.Â
