{"id":256048,"date":"2026-01-21T11:42:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T11:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/256048\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T11:42:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T11:42:07","slug":"dublin-in-running-as-world-economic-forum-weighs-moving-flagship-event-from-davos-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/256048\/","title":{"rendered":"Dublin in running as World Economic Forum weighs moving flagship event from Davos \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senior executives at the World Economic Forum<\/a> (WEF) are weighing whether the organisation\u2019s flagship annual meeting needs to change location, fearing the event has outgrown its traditional Alpine venue in Davos. <\/p>\n

Larry Fink, BlackRock chair and interim co-chair of the WEF\u2019s governing board, has privately discussed options including moving the summit permanently from Davos or using venues on a rotational basis. Among the locations discussed were Detroit and Dublin.<\/p>\n

Fink wants to reshape the forum, which has been widely criticised as too elitist and out of touch, saying access should extend beyond the political and business leaders who usually attend its events, according to four people familiar with the talks. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Macron accuses US of trying to \u2018subordinate\u2019 EuropeOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The WEF should \u201cstart doing something new: showing up \u2013 and listening \u2013 in the places where the modern world is actually built\u201d, Fink said in a blog post on Monday. \u201cDavos, yes. But also places like Detroit and Dublin \u2013 and cities like Jakarta and Buenos Aires.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the WEF\u2019s leadership continues to reaffirm Davos, the Swiss ski resort that has hosted the annual meeting for nearly six decades, as the event\u2019s spiritual and practical home, there had also been internal acknowledgment of the setting\u2019s increasing logistical and strategic challenges, two of the people added.<\/p>\n

The WEF \u201chas outgrown\u201d its capacity, said one senior executive who waited in traffic for three-and-a-half hours to enter the small skiing village for this week\u2019s shindig. <\/p>\n

The debate over the location of the global gathering comes as the forum has evolved far beyond its early identity as a club for European management elites. <\/p>\n

Now the five-day summit regularly attracts tens of thousands of participants \u2013 both official invitees, including heads of state and executives from business and civil society, as well as the informal \u201chouses\u201d hosted by governments, companies and lobbying groups along Davos\u2019s promenade and side streets.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has become a victim of its own success,\u201d said one person familiar with the conversations. <\/p>\n

Accommodation shortages, security costs and the limited physical infrastructure \u2013 a record attendance has already been reported for the current event \u2013 have been acknowledged by WEF officials as problematic. <\/p>\n

US president Donald Trump\u2019s arrival on Wednesday is expected to further complicate the logistical challenges surrounding the summit. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important to the Swiss government that the WEF retains strong ties to Switzerland,\u201d one of the people said, who added that keeping it in Europe was a priority for many senior forum executives.<\/p>\n

The discussions coincide with senior leadership changes at the WEF, with Fink and Roche vice-chair Andr\u00e9 Hoffmann stepping in as interim chairs of the governing board in August.<\/p>\n

WEF founder Klaus Schwab stepped down in April amid whistleblower allegations about financial misconduct and other governance problems. Last year\u2019s investigation cleared Schwab of misconduct, finding no material wrongdoing or criminal conduct but some \u201cirregularities\u201d. <\/p>\n

But the saga forced a new page in the forum\u2019s history, which has prompted the interim management to consider its future plans amid criticism it has lost relevance and caters too much to the elite. <\/p>\n

It is not the first time relocating the forum\u2019s annual meetings has been suggested, while Schwab had also looked extensively at relocating the forum\u2019s headquarters to Dubai several years ago. <\/p>\n

Officially, the forum remains supportive of Davos. WEF directors have publicly stressed the historical significance of the Alpine location, which also brings in crucial tourism revenue and investment. The Swiss government and some of its leading companies would also be likely to resist any move to relocate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Swiss would be very against a relocation: that will create hurdles,\u201d a WEF official said, adding that any move \u201cis not definite\u201d.<\/p>\n

BlackRock and WEF did not respond to requests for comment. –Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Senior executives at the World Economic Forum (WEF) are weighing whether the organisation\u2019s flagship annual meeting needs to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,120986,61,60,28505,45379],"class_list":["post-256048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-davos","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-larry-fink","tag-world-economic-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}