After 31 years in the
Alps, the World Economic Forum has decided
to move its Annual Meeting from Davos,
Switzerland to New York City. This is not
a permanent move and plans are already
underway to bring the meeting back to Davos
for 2003. But we believe our decision to
hold the upcoming meeting in New York should
have both practical and symbolic significance.
We decided to move to New Yo
rk because
we felt our meeting had to be directly
relevant to the events of 11 September
and their aftermath. The global economy,
global politics and global cultural
dialogue were all negatively impacted
by the tragic
events of that day.
Holding
our Annual Meeting in New York sends a signal that
the World Economic Forum is looking to address, head
on, the critical issues we're facing now.
But although we've
decided to hold this year's meeting in New York,
it will still be an international
gathering. In the legendary "spirit of Davos" key
leaders from business, government and civil society-from
all corners of the world-will come together for
a frank dialogue on the important issues we face.
In light of the tragic events of 11 September,
we think dialogue like this is critically important.
We have ripped
up the program we had developed for the meeting
and we are completing a whole new,
active and relevant program for Annual Meeting
2002. We are reaching out to experts and public
figures who can bring knowledge and insight to
the critical issues we will be addressing. And
we are changing the "architecture" of
the meeting so as to facilitate maximum interaction
and engagement by our participants.
Last spring, as
we surveyed the deteriorating global economy,
we decided to convene our next
Annual Meeting under the theme, "Coping with
Fragility." In light of the terrible events
of September 11 and their aftermath, our theme
has become, unfortunately, more appropriate than
we could have predicted.
The World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting will
be the first major world leadership gathering since
September 11. We believe it will be the most important
Annual Meeting in Forum history.
Klaus Schwab is founder and president of the World
Economic Forum. He also teaches at the University
of Geneva.
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