Davos organizers should relocate venue
Harry Bhaskara, The Jakarta Post, Davos
If you are fond of playing hide and seek, you'd have a very good time at the annual Davos gathering. Discussion rooms are often very difficult to find in the Congress Center.
The main conference building's illogical design is consequence of annexes being continuously added to it to accommodate the increasing number of participants, today hovering at around 2,200. Looking for a hall for a session or meeting is like playing a game of hide and seek in a rabbit warren.
From the outside, the building in which the World Economic Forum is being held appears unpretentious with its naked grey bricks. It's not the posh building one might associate with a gathering of the rich. Once inside, stairs lead you downwards. Floors are called "promenades".
The challenge is to locate each of the nine discussion halls where most of the 300-odd sessions were held over five days. It was a disaster for newcomers. The map did not help a lot as it was often less than accurate.
In addition, newcomers also have to familiarize themselves with the names of some 20 hotels scattered around Davos village, as they are also used for forum discussions. Many of the hotels have German names denoting that the owners are Swiss of German origin. Transportation to the hotels was free, easy and convenient, with buses coming every 15 minutes in addition to dozens of passenger vans that constantly circled the village of 13,000 inhabitants.
Discussions were almost always dominated by Westerners, as only 15 percent of the 2,200 participants -- from 96 countries -- were non-Western. The hardest part was waiting for buses or vans on side streets in freezing temperatures, at times going down to minus 20 degrees Centigrade.
At the basement level was the media center; a small, cramped and crowded room with only a dozen computers. True to the nature of capitalism, only the rich media count, for they had private rooms. The rule here is: you get what you pay for.
Prices in Davos are astronomical, especially for those coming from developing countries. A lunch or dinner costs from between $25 to $75, the latter being equal to the minimum monthly wage in Jakarta.
Most sessions had no fee to sign up, but those that included lunch or dinner required a $75 sign up fee. The wage for a bus driver in Davos is around US$2,400 a month, and housekeeping staff in star-rated hotel received about half that amount.
Hotel rooms range from US$350 to $800 per night, four times the normal rate. Since Davos is a famous ski resort, hotels had to refuse bookings from holiday makers during the week of the forum. Each booking for forum participants had to be made for a minimum of five nights, which is the entire duration of the forum.
The biggest challenge for WEF organizers, especially if they want increased participation from Asia, is to break their emotional ties with beautiful Davos. That is, they need to move the annual gathering elsewhere. Asia would be a logical choice as this is where more than half of world's population live. Asia also has lots of mountains, if organizers wish to preserve Davos' "signature" of serenity and cold climate.
As such, people from warmer climates will be spared the torture of subzero temperatures. Participants would also no longer need to waste time queuing up to lodge their heavy coats. And you will not have to play hide and seek to find discussion rooms, as a building with a more simple design would almost certainly be found.