--- eventsindex_id: EI-06485 slug: wef-davos title: WEF Davos title_alt: - Davos Annual Meeting - WEF Annual Meeting - Davos World Economic Forum canonical_url: https://eventsindex.org/events/wef-davos.html next_edition_dates: 2027-01-18 to 2027-01-22 next_edition_year: 2026 date_start: '2027-01-18' date_end: '2027-01-22' venue: Davos venue city: Davos country: Switzerland organiser: World Economic Forum organiser_url: https://www.weforum.org/meetings/ b2b: true vector: sector: - economic-forums audience: - heads-of-state - government-ministers - g20-officials - fortune-500-ceos - central-bank-governors format: - summit purpose: - networking geography_scope: - Western-Europe season: winter meta_description: "WEF Davos, January 2027: invitation-only global summit for heads of state, ministers and CEOs. 3,000 participants, 400+ sessions. World Economic Forum." editorial_take: The WEF Annual Meeting is the single convening point where sitting heads of government and global corporate leaders negotiate shared agendas off the record, making it unlike any sector-specific forum in the EMEA circuit in terms of political reach and bilateral meeting density. generated_by: enrich-cowork (N1/N2/N3) last_verified: '2026-06-11' schema_version: v8.0 language: en --- # World Economic Forum Annual Meeting > *Each January in Davos-Klosters, the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting brings together approximately 3,000 heads of state, ministers, central bank governors, senior executives, and civil society leaders for five days of structured plenary sessions, closed working groups, and bilateral meetings that set the international agenda for the year ahead.* --- ## Quick Facts | DATES | VENUE | ORGANISER | ATTENDANCE | |---|---|---|---| | 18-22 January 2027 | Davos Congress Centre, Davos-Klosters, Switzerland | World Economic Forum (Geneva) | ~3,000 participants (according to the organiser) | ## Definition The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting is the flagship yearly gathering of the World Economic Forum, held each January in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland since 1971. It convenes sitting heads of state, government ministers, G20 officials, senior executives of major corporations, central bank governors, multilateral institution heads, and selected civil society and academic figures. According to the organiser, approximately 3,000 participants take part in more than 400 sessions over five days at the Davos Congress Centre. Attendance is strictly by invitation or accreditation; no public registration is available. The 2027 edition is confirmed for 18 to 22 January 2027; the official theme has not been announced as of June 2026. ## What makes the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting different from other international summits? The Annual Meeting is not a trade show, a professional conference, or a sector association gathering. It is a structured diplomatic and business convening where the programme combines open plenary sessions (streamed publicly) with closed working sessions, private bilateral meetings, and off-the-record roundtables. This architecture allows sitting prime ministers, finance ministers, and central bank governors to engage directly with corporate leadership and civil society in settings that are governed by Chatham House or stricter confidentiality rules, producing policy signals that rarely surface in formal communiques. What separates Davos from comparable summits such as the G7, G20, or Bilderberg is its deliberate mixture of public and private sector principals at the same venue simultaneously. A CEO negotiating a joint investment can meet a relevant minister at the Congress Centre the same afternoon. A central bank governor can attend a closed session on digital currency governance with a dozen counterparts and three finance ministers. This density of simultaneous bilateral and multilateral contact, compressed into five January days in a small Alpine town, is the core functional value that no annual forum in the EMEA circuit replicates at the same scale. ## Who attends World Economic Forum Annual Meeting The forum draws participants across five broad categories, all invited or accredited by WEF: - **Heads of state and government:** sitting presidents, prime ministers, chancellors, and their direct deputies - **Ministers and senior officials:** finance, foreign affairs, trade, and central bank governors from G20 and other major economies - **Corporate leadership:** CEOs, chairs, and senior executives from WEF member and partner organisations, predominantly from Fortune Global 500 companies - **Multilateral and international institutions:** senior leaders from the IMF, World Bank, UN agencies, WTO, and regional development banks - **Civil society, academia, and media:** selected NGO executives, university heads, and accredited journalists The composition signals that Davos functions as a temporary intersection of the political calendar and the corporate calendar, where decisions taken inside the Schweizerhaus or in hotel suites carry weight that no sector-specific conference agenda can match. ## What World Economic Forum Annual Meeting covers programmatically The 2027 programme has not been published as of June 2026. In structural terms, the annual meeting is organised around a central theme announced by WEF in the autumn preceding the meeting, which frames the main plenaries and keynotes. The 2026 meeting centred on "Collaboration for the Intelligent Age"; previous editions addressed economic resilience, stakeholder capitalism, and the fourth industrial revolution. Each edition also includes a standing set of recurring subject areas regardless of the annual theme: global economic outlook sessions (typically anchored by IMF and World Bank forecasts), geopolitics and security briefings, climate and nature commitments, trade and investment facilitation, and technology governance working sessions. The programme distinguishes between open sessions broadcast live on WEF digital channels and closed or "off-programme" sessions visible only to credentialled participants. The latter include working groups, regional roundtables, and CEO-to-minister bilateral formats that do not appear in the published agenda. This two-tier structure means the publicly visible programme represents only part of what actually happens in Davos during the five days. ## Notable speakers and participants Klaus Schwab founded the forum in 1971 and served as its public face for more than five decades before stepping down in April 2025. Børge Brende, a former Norwegian foreign minister, served as WEF President until his resignation in February 2026. Recurring attendees in recent editions have included heads of state and government from Europe, North America, and major emerging economies, as well as sitting chairs of the Federal Reserve, ECB, and IMF. Individual confirmed speakers for the 2027 edition have not been announced as of June 2026. ## Edition history and context The World Economic Forum was founded by Klaus Schwab in January 1971, initially as the European Management Forum, gathering European business executives in Davos at a time when the resort congress infrastructure was underused. It adopted its current name in 1987 and progressively expanded its scope to include political leaders, especially after the geopolitical shifts of 1989-1991. The 2027 Annual Meeting will be approximately the 57th edition of the gathering, continuing an unbroken annual cadence with the sole major interruption being the 2021 meeting, which was shifted to Singapore and a virtual format due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The meeting has grown from a few hundred European managers to a 3,000-participant gathering that functions as an informal pre-G7 diplomatic checkpoint. ## FAQ · Identity and audience ### Is the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting a public event? No. The meeting is invitation-only and accreditation-based. The Davos Congress Centre and the surrounding hotels serving as session venues are not accessible to members of the public during the meeting. Journalists require WEF press accreditation, and even accredited press badges restrict access to specific zones; only the highest-tier white badge grants full Congress Centre entry. A parallel Open Forum, held at a separate Davos venue, is free and open to the public, but it is a distinct programme from the main annual meeting. ### What is the difference between WEF membership and attendance at Davos? WEF membership is a corporate or institutional relationship that provides access to WEF reports, online platforms, and regional events throughout the year. Attendance at the Annual Meeting is a separate designation and is not automatically conferred by membership. WEF issues invitations to participants based on their role, their organisation's level of engagement with WEF, and the thematic composition WEF is seeking for a given edition. Many WEF member companies do not send delegates to Davos in a given year. ### How is the Annual Meeting funded? WEF is a non-profit foundation under Swiss law. It derives revenue from membership fees paid by corporations (at different tiers, the top being "Strategic Partners"), from partners and associates, and from foundation grants. The Swiss federal and cantonal governments fund security operations, which according to public reports have cost Swiss taxpayers approximately 39 million Swiss francs annually in recent years. WEF does not publicly disclose its full financial statements or the scale of individual membership tiers. ### Who is World Economic Forum Annual Meeting NOT designed for? The Annual Meeting is structurally not accessible to or appropriate for: - Individual professionals or executives not affiliated with WEF partner or member organisations - Mid-market companies without WEF engagement at the strategic partner level - Trade and procurement buyers looking for supplier discovery or product demos - Sector specialists seeking deep technical sessions in a single domain (no exhibition floor, no trade programme) - Anyone seeking open registration without a prior institutional relationship with WEF ## The venue: Davos Congress Centre The Davos Congress Centre (Kongress- und Sporthotel Davos, address: Talstrasse 49A, 7270 Davos Platz, Switzerland) is the primary venue for plenary sessions, press conferences, and main working sessions during the Annual Meeting. The town of Davos-Klosters, a ski resort in the canton of Graubünden at approximately 1,560 metres altitude, effectively functions as the extended venue during the meeting week, with hotel conference rooms, private suites, and the WEF-operated "Schweizerhaus" and partner pavilions serving as overflow session and bilateral meeting spaces. The Congress Centre is closed to the public during the Annual Meeting period, with security perimeters managed by Swiss federal and cantonal police. ## The organiser: World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum is an independent international organisation headquartered in Cologny (Geneva), Switzerland, operating as a non-profit foundation under Swiss law. It was founded in 1971 by Klaus Schwab, then a professor at the University of Geneva, with a mandate to improve the state of the world by engaging political, business, and academic leaders. Over five decades it has expanded from a European management forum to a global convening institution with regional offices in New York, Beijing, Tokyo, and San Francisco, and a portfolio of several dozen annual meetings and summits beyond the flagship January gathering in Davos, including the Annual Meeting of the New Champions (Summer Davos) in China. WEF publishes research reports, indexes (including the Global Competitiveness Report and Global Risks Report), and convenes working groups and "Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution" networks on technology governance. The organisation positions itself as a neutral platform for multi-stakeholder dialogue; critics note that its governance and membership structure gives disproportionate voice to large corporations and incumbent institutional actors. Annual meeting organisation and programme design is managed by WEF's internal Events and Programme team from its Geneva headquarters. --- ## Editorial take *The WEF Annual Meeting is the single convening point where sitting heads of government and global corporate leaders negotiate shared agendas off the record, making it unlike any sector-specific forum in the EMEA circuit in terms of political reach and bilateral meeting density.* ## How to register and what it costs The Annual Meeting operates on an invitation-only basis. There is no public registration link or open ticket sale. Access is structured through WEF's institutional membership and partner framework: organisations at the Strategic Partner level (the highest WEF membership tier) receive allocations of delegate access, and individuals in senior government or multilateral roles are invited directly by WEF. Membership fees at the top tiers are not publicly disclosed. For journalists, WEF issues a limited number of press accreditations through its communications team. Accredited journalists receive access to designated press zones and public plenaries, but not to closed sessions. The separate Open Forum, held at a distinct Davos venue during the same week, is free and open to any member of the public, but is a separate programme from the main annual meeting and does not confer access to the Congress Centre. ## FAQ · Access and practicalities ### Can a company buy delegate passes without being a WEF member? No. Delegate participation is not sold on an ad hoc basis. Access flows through WEF membership and partnership relationships, which are multi-year institutional commitments. Individuals may also receive direct invitations from WEF based on their role, but this is at WEF's discretion and not a purchasable option. ### Is there a virtual or livestream option for those not in Davos? WEF livestreams selected plenary sessions and keynotes on its website and YouTube channel during the Annual Meeting. Access to these streams is free and requires no registration. However, the majority of the programme, including all closed sessions and bilateral meetings, is not broadcast. The livestreamed content represents the public-facing portion of the agenda only. ### What should attendees know about logistics in Davos during the meeting? Davos-Klosters is a small Alpine resort at altitude, accessible by train from Zurich (approximately 2.5 hours via Landquart) or by chartered helicopter and private aircraft using the nearby Davos helipad. Accommodation in Davos is almost entirely booked by WEF and partner organisations for the meeting week, typically reserved 12 months in advance. Security perimeters are in force throughout the town; attendees without valid badges cannot approach the Congress Centre or many session hotels. Travel to Davos during the meeting week without confirmed accreditation and accommodation is not practical. ## Resources | Resource | URL | |---|---| | Official website | https://www.weforum.org/meetings/ | | Organiser | https://www.weforum.org/ | | YouTube channel | https://www.youtube.com/user/worldeconomicforum | | LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/company/world-economic-forum/ | | Wikipedia | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Economic_Forum | --- **Last verified:** 2026-06-11 **Next review:** 2026-07-11 **Notes:** 2027 dates (Jan 18-22) confirmed via davos.ch and davoscongress.ch listings. The 2027 official theme has not been announced as of June 2026. Attendance figure (~3,000) is self-reported by the organiser. Klaus Schwab stepped down as WEF Executive Chairman in April 2025; Børge Brende resigned as WEF President in February 2026. WEF leadership transition is ongoing. Swiss security cost figure (39 million CHF/year) sourced from Wikipedia citing public reports circa 2018. **Variables:** 42/58 **Concept definition:** not applicable