DAVOS: With the World Economic Forum kicking off in earnest on Tuesday, AFP presents a guide to the week-long event in the Swiss Alps Davos is shorthand for the World Economic Forum ( WEF ), which in its original guise was founded in 1971 by German business professor Klaus Schwab as a way for European corporate leaders to learn from their US counterparts.Political leaders started attending later in the 1970s, and since then it has morphed into an annual jamboree where the global elite - joined by intellectuals, activists, celebrities and sometimes protestors -- debate the world's problems.Who isn't coming, more like. Many of the panels will revolve around the theme of the "Fourth Industrial Revolution", how to equip today's workers to survive the advent of automation and artificial intelligence.Others will look at geostrategic challenges in the era of Trump, Brexit and identity politics; how to decipher fact from fiction in the age of "fake news"; exploiting machine intelligence in health, and combatting "the next pandemic"; risks to high-flying financial markets; making economic growth inclusive; and the future of food.And those are all just on the first day.While only one-fifth of attendees are women, the organisers are keen to harness discussion about the #MeToo movement with an array of panels looking at gender equality.It would be a surprise to find Trump at one of the WEF's sessions illustrating "A Day in the Life of a Refugee" or joining a Thursday night panel on climate change with former vice president Al Gore.Gore is showing a special screening of the sequel to his global-warming documentary "An Inconvenient Truth". The follow-up is called "An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power".Chilling in a literal sense is not hard in Davos, Switzerland 's highest alpine village where the snowfall has been even heavier than usual this winter.The bad weather has disrupted train and road links from the nearest big city of Zurich. Not that that should unduly bother the VIPs, who routinely take helicopters to access the WEF.If you're a delegate and want to hit the shops, you'll probably be out of luck. Many retail outlets and even a church are handing over their premises - for hefty rents - to corporate clients to use as their base for the week.

Source: Economic Times January 22, 2018 11:37 UTC