Davos 2024 Day 1: What to expect

This article is brought to you thanks to the collaboration of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum.

Author: Gayle Markovitz, Lead Editor, World Economic Forum

• The World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting takes place in Davos from 15-19 January 2024.
• Here’s a snapshot of everything you need to know about Day 1 of Davos 2024.

Welcome to the first day of the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos. Each morning we’ll bring you a rundown of what to expect, the sessions you might want to keep an eye on, any essential pre-reading and things that are good to know.

Things you might have missed

There’s plenty that you can look at to help you get up to speed ahead of today and the rest of the week.

We held our pre-meeting media briefing last week. Watch it below.

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“At a time when global challenges require urgent solutions, innovative public-private collaboration is necessary to convert ideas into action,” said Børge Brende. “The Forum provides the structure for developing research, alliances and frameworks that promote mission-driven cooperation throughout the year. Next week’s Annual Meeting will serve as an accelerator of that cooperation, deepening connections between leaders and between initiatives.”

Last week, we also launched our Global Risks Report, Transforming Energy Demand, and Global Cooperation Barometer publications. The barometer did offer a note of hope ahead of the Annual Meeting as Bob Sternfels, Global Managing Partner at McKinsey & Company, explained:

“It’s clear that on some dimensions the world has become increasingly divided, yet the barometer shows that when you look at the full picture, global cooperation has remained surprisingly robust over the last decade.”

Yesterday, we also hosted the National Security Advisors meeting on the Ukraine Peace Formula, with 83 countries and international organizations joining discussions on several elements of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s 10-point plan calling for an end to hostilities with Russia.

“We had open and very constructive talks,” Andriy Yermak, Head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine, Office of the President of Ukraine told a press conference after the meeting. “We discussed in detail the key principles in reaching a comprehensive, just and lasting peace for Ukraine and the world.”

Sessions to watch

Cultural leaders bring their vision to today’s opening ceremony, where the three winners of the 30th Annual Crystal Award share their vision for building bridges, problem solving, and creating positive change.

The full programme starts tomorrow. All times are GMT+1.

18:00 – The Crystal Award 2024

18:30 – Opening Concert

18:30 – Open Forum: Liberating Science

What is a Cultural Leader?

Show

Launches and things to look out for on Day 1 of Davos 2024

As always, a lot is going on today, but be sure to look out for the following.

Chief Economists Outlook

As we look ahead to 2024, today sees the launch of our latest Chief Economist Outlook. It draws on the World Economic Forum’s Chief Economists Community and a regular Chief Economists Survey to present an outlook for the global economy.

It will be live here at 06:00

Shaping Cooperation in a Fragmenting World

At a time when conflict and competition are on the rise and urgent global challenges demand collective solutions, Shaping Cooperation in a Fragmenting World offers guidance on what global cooperation can look like in a turbulent era.

It will be live here at 06:00

Making a difference

• Global Gender Gap Report 2023Read more

Public-private collaboration is key to closing the gender gap. The Forum is working with companies and governments around the world to increase female labour force participation and advance equity in pay and leadership.

Read more about our Gender Gap Accelerators.

Podcasts from the mountain

We’re podcasting all week from Davos:

Check out this Radio Davos episode about the Global Risks Report and the big issues leaders will be grappling with at the Annual Meeting.

Meet the Leader, the interview show about leaders and leadership has this curtain-raiser: Lessons from Davos Leaders ahead of Annual Meeting 2024

And keep an eye on Agenda Dialogues where you can catch the audio from some of the biggest and best sessions from Davos 2024.

https://open.spotify.com/embed/episode/00NgCf9hCzHrvdUJgQLW8X

Some reading and watching for Davos 2024 this morning

In the last couple of weeks, we’ve published a huge number of articles and reports. Here’s a snapshot of these, but you can see everything on our Davos Agenda collection page and our publications page.