The great and good from the worlds of business and politics are meeting this week in the Swiss mountain top resort of Davos for the World Economic Forum.
Donald Trump’s tough stance on Greenland, threatening tariffs on eight European countries has overshadowed the whole event and he is due to speak there in the late afternoon on Wednesday.
If Larry Fink has his way, this might be one of the last times that Davos hosts the WEF jamboree, having been its home since its foundation in 1971.
In a blog post that caught delegates off guard, Fink, BlackRock chair and interim co-chair of the WEF’s governing board, suggested moving the summit permanently from Davos or using venues on a rotational basis.
READ MORE
And among the locations discussed was none other than Dublin. According to the Financial Times, Fink wants to reshape the forum, which has been widely criticised as too elitist and out of touch.
The WEF should “start doing something new: showing up – and listening – in the places where the modern world is actually built”, Fink said in his blog post.
[ Dublin in running as World Economic Forum weighs moving flagship event from DavosOpens in new window ]
“Davos, yes. But also places like Detroit and Dublin – and cities like Jakarta and Buenos Aires.”
The prospect of WEF coming to Dublin would have tourism chiefs and hospitality owners here rubbing their hands. It would be quite a coup for the city were it to happen, albeit it would come at a high cost.
Could Dublin realistically host WEF? Davos is a small resort, with limited accommodation. Many of those attending WEF have to stay in neighbouring towns and cities and face long commutes each day.
Web Summit quit our capital city a decade ago, citing infrastructure constraints among its reasons for decamping to Lisbon (there was, of course, also the small matter of huge financial incentives offered by the Portuguese authorities).
Old order ‘not coming back’ as Trump overshadows World Economic Forum
Some 3,000 delegates attend Davos, including 120 political leaders. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg.
About 5,000 Swiss army personnel are committed to the event, along with local and canton police officers.
There is also a battalion of media, a large contingent of private security operatives, along with catering workers and others who staff the event. It’s a huge logistical operation. Easily 10,000-plus people across the week.
On paper, Dublin could accommodate the event. There are about 25,000 hotel bedrooms in Dublin, which in January would have an occupancy level of around 70 per cent, according to hospitality sources. So that’s 7,500 spare rooms normally.
According to its website, the Convention Centre Dublin can host just shy of 3,600 delegates theatre-style in its ground floor forum space and it has 22 rooms that could accommodate media, and various panels and break out sessions.
However, that’s only part of the story. Davos essentially goes into lockdown for the duration of the event, with tight restrictions on access to the resort.
Closing off one side of Dublin’s quays for a week would paralyse the city’s traffic and severely compromise access to the port.
Then there’s the high-level security operation required for political leaders. The Swiss military is years ahead of Ireland in terms of its ability to manage such a vast operation.
Ireland would also no doubt have to write a big cheque to secure Davos for Dublin.
The WEF’s brand is tightly tied to Davos and the original rationale for hosting it high in the Alps was to get leaders out of their bubbles and away from the masses.
That was an age before the internet and the extensive transport and telecoms connectivity that now exists in our always-on society. The Swiss will be loath to give it up.
So the odds of in moving out of Davos, never mind relocating to Dublin, are low. But if Millstreet can host the Eurovision anything is possible.
