Economic forum moves to Manhattan

By Our Economy Bureau | 28 Jan 2002

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New York: To show support for New York in the wake of the 11 September terrorist attacks, Klaus Schwab, the founder of the World Economic Forum, moved his annual jamboree here this year from its traditional home in Davos, Switzerland, a New York Times report said.

But the sojourn of the forum an unparalleled gathering of world leaders, celebrity chief executives, academics, writers and other movers and shakers that begins on 31 January from the quiet ski resort perched on the slopes of the Alps to the mean streets of Manhattan also mirrors a sharp shift in the global psyche.

Holding the forum in Davos, a secluded playground for European vacationers and, on occasion, the idle rich, would have sent the wrong message. Not only has globalisation been cast by terrorists as the cause of many ills, but also it may be the culprit behind the synchronised slowdown of the world economy, the first global downturn since the oil crisis of the 1970s.

"More than anything else, the issues discussed this year will be addressed more sombrely," says Robert D Hormats, vice-chairman of Goldman Sachs International. "I think when historians look at the 1990s, they will look at it as a period of irrational exuberance in many respects. The cold war was over. Western economies grew at a rapid rate. Stock markets were doing extremely well. And there was a feeling almost of invulnerability. A new sense of realism has descended on us, and we realise were all in peril."

From its inception 31 years ago, when 440 people attended and almost no one noticed, to now, when thousands participate and thousands more wish they had been invited, the forum has become an icon of globalisation for both its admirers and the legions of detractors who decry its embrace of free trade, deregulation and market capitalism.

The protests against the forum have actually enhanced its credibility, although they have never approached the scale and fury of those that derailed the World Trade Organisations meetings in Seattle in 1999 and in Genoa, Italy, last year.

Davos was difficult to get to and to infiltrate; Manhattan is not. But many protesters say they will be staying away, afraid that any confrontation with the New York City police, who have become heroes since the September attacks, would damage their image. "Dont get me wrong, I am extremely supportive of the people who will be protesting in New York," says John Sellers, executive director of the Ruckus Society, a human rights group in San Francisco that has helped organise protests against global trade. "But I dont trust the media to make us look anything but ugly and unreasonable, particularly when wed be standing across the barricades from New Yorks finest, the heroes of 11 September."

Instead, Sellers and others will head for an anti-forum, the World Social Forum, to be held at the same time as its economic nemesis but in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Its organisers expect as many as 50,000 people to attend.

Thanks to Schwabs canny sense of what makes for a good mix of people, however, some of the protesters will be working both sides of the barricade. In recognition of the anti-globalisation protests, and to enliven five days of forum sessions on television, the Swiss impresario has reached out to people like Sara Horowitz, executive director of Working Today, and Peter Brey, secretary general of the Terre des Hommes Foundation, whose groups push for labour rights, better schools, healthcare and other social benefits in third-world countries.

Reflecting the sweeping, often touchy-feely aspect of many sessions, Horowitz says: "One panel I am on is about religion and what is the mission behind social entrepreneurial efforts, and how you inject moral values into what we all do." Like Brey, she will shift between the panel sessions at the Waldorf-Astoria and the protests on Park Avenue outside.

The forum is unlike the other targets of protesters the International Monetary Fund, for example, and the World Bank in that its role as a private policy broker is overshadowed by its appearance. To outsiders, the gathering seems little more than a five-day cocktail party or, worse, a shadow world government.

But while conceding the remarkable social potential of the event, participants say the forum affords the opportunity to reach out to headline-makers from the worlds of business, government, culture and politics.

"You get as much out of it as you put into it," says Flemming R Jacobs, a Dane who is head of the NOL Group, a shipping and logistics management company based in Singapore. "In the past, there have been wall-to-wall panels on a wealth of really different issues, and in some instances, it has been difficult to choose one over the other. I try to make as many as possible and then grab a cup of coffee with some of the more interesting personalities. It is interesting how approachable everybody is."

Still, the serious side of the forum pales next to the star power of the attendees, and in the past, special e-mail kiosks have enabled more plebeian participants to connect, quickly and easily, with the most powerful.

This year, Bill Gates, the Microsoft founder and chairman, can mix it up with a rival, Nobuyuki Idei, chairman and chief executive of Sony. Kim Dae Jung, the president of South Korea, can exchange views with Thomas Klestil, the president of Austria, and Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan.

All this comes with a cost, of course. Schwab gets most of the organisations income from corporations, which pay annual fees of $17,647 plus $7,353 for each person attending. American companies have gradually become the biggest source of this corporate revenue, and their executives often get prominent billing at forum events.

But entertainment is never ignored. Daniel Boulud, perhaps the reigning prince of the New York gastronomic scene, whose restaurants Restaurant Daniel, Caf Boulud and db Bistro Moderne will no doubt be mobbed by forum participants, will be the host of a panel called Tell Me What You Eat exploring the clues that food offers about culture and national identity.

And a host of other luminaries, ranging from Alec Baldwin, Quincy Jones and Jenny Holzer to Elie Wiesel and Francis Fukuyama, will also be roaming the convention halls, as they have in the past.

"I think you go for the same reason you go to parties to see a lot of people you only get to see when you go to parties, because youre too busy with work and travelling all the time," says Joichi Ito, founder and chief executive of Neoteny, a technology investment company in Tokyo, who is looking forward to stealing a few moments with John Gage, chief scientist at Sun Microsystems. "The forum is the only time I can get to see all these busy people in one place and have business meetings and get new ideas."

 

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