Forget the fondue.
Caviar, magic mushrooms, gold-leaf desserts, A-list selfies, $2,500-per-night hookers and secret dinners are more likely to be on the menu as scores of personal jets touch down in Switzerland as soon as Sunday to bring the world’s elite to the small Alpine resort town of Davos for what’s officially often known as The World Economic Forum 2024.
Greater than 3000 masters of the universe are expected to point out up for the 54th annual event on the Alpine resort nestled within the snowy Landwasser valley. The theme this yr is “Rebuilding Trust.”
“You may almost smell the magic of the place whenever you’re there,” a well-connected Davos regular told The Post.
“Everyone’s got an agenda and also you never know who you’re going to run into whenever you come out of the restroom. It might be Bill Gates.
“You’re around a few of the smartest people on the earth but one thing you learn is that they’re not all the time so smart.”
WEF head Klaus Schwab, while portrayed as an actual life Dr. Evil in far-right circles, might be more of a high-rent PT Barnum than sinister global conspiracist.
Last yr Vanity Fair identified that Schwab “developed the Forum from an earnest meeting of policy wonks right into a glittering assembly of the world’s richest people. He has achieved this by ingratiating himself with those that wield power, and particularly the billionaire class — a tribe often known as Davos Man.”
Not all Davos Men — or women — are created equal though: there’s a caste system that separates the merely connected from the apex of the elite.
Everyone has to wear a coloured badge with their full name on it in any respect times, and the colour is an easy way of judging their importance. (The actual flex — being so famous you hide the badge.)
White badges are the most costly accreditation, but in addition available only to the very top tier business leaders.
Being a CEO will not be enough: your organization have to be a household name, or at least a household name in the most important boardrooms.
“When you look up namedropping within the dictionary you’ll see a photograph of Davos,” Skybridge Capital founder and chairman Anthony Scaramucci, who’s attended Davos since 2007, told The Post.
“But you recognize what? I’ve never left the mountain without learning something necessary or making a latest friend.”
Other more lowly badges, in a rainbow of colours, are given to the white badgeholders’ entourages; to less necessary CEOs and non-profit bosses; to the media; to WEF staff; and to the legions of staff who cater to their needs.
Political heavyweights like Chinese Premier Li Qiang; French president Emmanuel Macron; Secretary of State Antony Blinken; National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan; and Pres. Biden’s climate envoy John Kerry will probably be jostling for invitations to one of the best cocktail parties along this yr.
So too will OpenAI CEO Sam Altman; Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy; newly-elected Argentinian president Javier Milei; supermodel Naomi Campbell; the World Health Organization’s Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of the World Health Organization; and Tirana Hassan of Human Rights Watch.
Though past and present Davos attendees prefer to talk concerning the enriching “policy discussions” on the snowy conference, the true A-listers vie for one of the best discreet cocktail parties and personal dinners with top CEOs — then hit the dance floor with Salesforce CEO. Marc Benioff.
Angling to get into the most popular CEO dinners is an annual ritual, but for personal dinner organizers, the headache is getting the most popular corporate guests, who this yr will probably be JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon and Altman, to attend.
The badges help set the scene for the evening.
For many, nighttime brings crowded cocktail parties where lavish canapés, some flecked with caviar, are served with champagne, and there are lines for selfies with A-listers which have included everyone from Matt Damon to Priyanka Chopra over time — but where attendees stay on their feet, and sure must hearken to a speech from one in every of the organizations hosting it.
Each private dining and cocktail scenes can converge at private performances by world-famous artists similar to Lenny Kravitz, Chris Martin of Coldplay and the Black Eyed Peas.
Nile Rodgers, Will.i.am and Cool and Dre are expected to perform this yr.
Once it was Marissa Mayer of Yahoo who hosted the most important names, but now it’s Benioff who books the acts — and like Mayer he’s an enthusiastic participant on the dance floor.
Scaramucci is once more hosting his wine “soirée,” this time on the Hotel Europe.
His wine list features relatively economical $260-a-bottle Laurent-Perrier No. 26 Grand Siècle champagne for bubbles fans, but hits the high notes with $802-a-bottle Domaine Comte Georges de Vogue Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru 2005 from Burgundy and from Bordeaux, the 2003 Chateau Latour, Pauillac, which retails at $995 a bottle.
Matt Damon, Goldie Hawn, Richard Branson, Andrea Bocelli and now-First Lady Jill Biden have been among the many boldfaced-names at Scaramucci’s past parties but he said he doesn’t know until the last minute who’ll be showing up.
Scaramucci said he still hasn’t heard any details about whether Dimon is having his own event. “I wouldn’t make that list anyway!!” he said.
Last yr Scaramucci had competition from more exotic substances, with a psychedelics company offering micro-doses of magic mushrooms to delegates and talks from Deepak Chopra. It will not be returning this yr.
In fact, the specter of Jeffrey Epstein also hangs over Davos, because it has done for years. This yr JP Morgan star banker Mary Erdoes is anticipated.
She handled Epstein after he was first convicted, was alerted to suspicious activity by him no less than six times but even sought tax advice from him. Campbell has her own Epstein connection; she was named within the recent drop of unsealed documents concerning the late, disgraced financier.
“There’s all the time been a slight dark side to Davos,” said one other Davos attendee who has gone to the conference two times lately. “You recognize what they are saying about world leaders and top CEOs being psychopaths.”
In 2016, for example, former Tradeshift CEO Christian Langg, then 45, who was fired last yr for allegedly having his assistant sign a “slave contract,” posed for a photograph with actor Kevin Spacey. The alleged victim later accused Langg of torturing her even while the 2 were at Davos. He denies the allegations.
Though a latest study by Salesforce indicated that a majority of Gen Z are surprisingly pro-Davos, a news organization calling itself the “Anti W.E.F.” will not be having it.
“”More back-slapping from the metropolitan elites who brought you wars, a value of living crisis, woke-obsession and public services that now not work,” the group snarled in an text to The Post.
“Once more those that think themselves the nice and the great meet in Davos to debate how they could make the world more businesslike, while ignoring the issues that real people face in supporting their families, in coping with the fear of world conflict, and in giving their children a greater life… They provide the world nothing that can improve it.”
Indeed, apart from some deal-making, it’s hard to say what concrete achievements come out of Davos.
“That’s above my pay-grade,” said one longtime observer.