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The World Economic Forum holds its annual meeting in the Swiss ski resort of Davos from January 24-28. FT.com explains why the meeting has traditionally had such a high profile, and what it hopes to achieve.

What is the WEF annual meeting?

The World Economic Forum is an independent organisation set up with the aim of “improving the state of the world” and funded by membership fees from 1,000 of the world’s biggest companies.

The annual meeting has its origins in a 1971 symposium organised by Klaus Schwab, professor of business management at the University of Geneva, to introduce European executives to US management techniques. These conferences then took place annually and became known as the “Davos Symposium”, before being renamed “Annual Meeting” in the mid-1980s.

Who goes?

Davos has traditionally attracted high-profile figures ranging from business leaders and politicians to scientists, academics and pop stars and this year more than 2,000 delegates are scheduled to attend.

Among the business delegates this year are:

• Bill Gates, of Microsoft
• Rupert Murdoch, of News Corporation
• Lakshmi Mittal, of Arcelor Mittal
• John Thain, of the NYSE

Also on the list of delegates are the likes of: Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, and Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

What draws people to the event?

The Annual Meeting offers a platform for leaders to address broad-brush global challenges that it would be difficult to debate in other industry or region-specific settings. But much of the attraction is the opportunity to do some serious schmoozing with important people from a diverse range of fields and organisations. And of course, there’s the skiing and the parties…

What’s this year’s theme?

This year’s discussions will examine how the “shifting power equation” – the theme of the meeting – affects governments and companies, presenting new challenges and opportunities in a networked world.

The “shifting power equation” relates towards individuals gaining power at the expense of governments, and customers, shareholders and regulators gaining power at the expense of corporate management, as well as a shift in economic power and influence towards emerging market countries in general and Asia in particular.

Does Davos achieve anything?

Davos is sometimes criticised as a rich-man’s talking shop, but the WEF points to a number of concrete initiatives that have come out of past Annual Meetings. In response to the Gujarat earthquake in India in 2001, for example, several participants created the Disaster Resource Network, a global group of construction and transportation companies that came together to help humanitarian organizations’ disaster relief efforts.

The WEF has also created a global greenhouse gas register to promote transparency on how companies contribute to global warming. On the corporate front, companies sometimes use Davos as a forum for unveiling strategy or exploring the possibility of deals with competitors.