The World Economic Forum had a problem. To put a fine point on it, after 30-plus years, it looked like the only people around the world that took the annual meeting in Davos seriously were the delegates themselves.
Held for one idyllic week each year in a little Swiss ski town, the exclusive gathering of the world's political, business, and celebrity elite increasingly had been criticized as an alpine ego trip and glitzy junket for a select few.