Maybe it’s the dress code: ski jackets and snow boots out, in favour of normal business attire. Or maybe it doesn’t look particularly good at the moment to be schmoozing on the side of a Swiss mountain as the world grapples with a cost-of-living crisis.
Instead of Donald Trump and Swedish teen eco-warrior Greta Thunberg, whose opposing worldviews provided the main storyline to the last WEF, and the usual smattering of major leaders and celebrities like Bono, rapper Will.I.Am, actresses Cate Blanchett and Angelina Jolie, and British royalty, the WEF this year is headlining with the likes of US climate envoy John Kerry, Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and German chancellor Olaf Scholz.
While Irish Government figures gave the 2020 WEF a miss as the country was heading into an election, Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Leo Varadkar are in Europe’s highest town this week.