Davos 2027 and What Actually Happens in January

A town known mostly for skiing is about to fill up with roughly 3000 people who run companies and governments. The World Economic Forum holds its 2027 Annual Meeting in Davos from January 18 through January 22.

One piece of the usual week has vanished. The Forum has discontinued its long running Open Forum programme so the public discussions that used to sit alongside the meeting will not return in their old format.

A hotel reservation puts you in Davos. The official meeting stays closed until the Forum itself invites you.

Outside the Congress Centre the town hosts a whole world of independent gatherings. Some demand an invitation. Other organizers take applications or registrations. The official sessions can also be followed online from anywhere. Working out who owns which event is the hard part.

The dates

The meeting runs from Monday January 18 to Friday January 22 at the Davos Congress Centre in Switzerland. That makes five days. Independent events around town keep their own calendars set by their organizers.

The local event listing expects approximately 3000 participants. Business and government dominate that list. Representatives of international organizations will be there too along with academics and people from civil society. These are expected figures and no final guest count exists.

The Davos Congress Centre and local tourism authorities published the dates. A full public agenda for every session was not available in the information used for this article.

How a ski town became shorthand

The Forum started pulling business leaders to Davos back in 1971. These days political leaders and executives show up to wrangle over economic problems. Most of the leftover talk goes to technology shifts and how countries cooperate. Researchers and journalists trail along to report the disagreements.

The Forum is a nonprofit and the annual gathering is only one of its activities through the year. The word Davos now stands for a much wider conversation between business and government. That muddies things because the town also fills with events from companies and groups that have no link to the WEF.

A corporate breakfast on the Promenade belongs to Davos week without counting as an official WEF session.

Can anyone just show up?

The organizer describes its main gathering as invitation only. Heads of state and senior figures from the private sector take part along with leaders from academic institutions and civil society. A tourist cannot buy an ordinary ticket for the Congress Centre. A business card or a finance job creates no eligibility either. Every invitation and every accreditation goes through the World Economic Forum itself.

Events elsewhere in town are another story since independent organizers write their own admission rules. Some invite a narrow group of executives. Others welcome applications from a broader professional audience.

The Open Forum is gone

It began in 2003 with free discussions during the Annual Meeting. Across 23 editions it hosted more than 230 public sessions. Jane Goodall and Malala Yousafzai were among the past speakers.

In September 2026 the World Economic Forum announced it was discontinuing the Open Forum Davos. The organization pointed to changes in public engagement and growing pressure on the town’s infrastructure during meeting week. Older travel guides that tell readers to register for an Open Forum discussion in January 2027 are out of date.

The WEF says it will keep working with the local community and is exploring other ways to take part. It also mentioned a separate one day Congress Centre badge raffle for residents of Davos Klosters. That raffle is a local arrangement and sells no general public tickets.

Everything happening off the official map

Hotels across central Davos fill up with receptions and panel discussions that have nothing to do with the official venue. Companies stage their own industry gatherings too and that is where most of the week’s activity sits. Some independent conference organizers even ship in their own speakers and audiences.

Admission varies a lot. Some public events take registration through an online form. A business gathering might review applications first. Private dinners usually run on direct invitations.

Access to one gathering opens no doors to another. An invitation to a corporate event has no connection to WEF accreditation. Two neighboring venues can have entirely different entry requirements. Published directories of independent events list the opportunities and each organizer confirms its own admission and programme.

What will people talk about

Economic policy returns every year. Trade and global cooperation have long had a place at the table too. Technology is hard to pull out of any of it now. Artificial intelligence shapes how companies approach investment and productivity. Cybersecurity worries organizations that work across borders. Energy policy and climate issues sit inside the wider debate on economic development.

Those are established themes in the Forum’s work and no confirmed session list for January 2027 exists. Names of speakers and session titles will show up in the official programme after the organizer releases it.

Early social media announcements deserve a careful read since an executive arriving for a private event may have no slot at the Annual Meeting at all.

Technology is also drawing large international audiences to other events throughout 2027. Our guide to the best AI conferences in 2027 covers the dates and locations of major gatherings for anyone following the business side of artificial intelligence.

Watching from home

Much of the Davos coverage reaches people who never see the Congress Centre. The WEF publishes videos and articles on its own digital channels and livestreamed numerous Annual Meeting sessions in previous years. International news organizations report on the major speeches during the week.

Once the 2027 programme appears the official session page is a useful starting point for any particular discussion. Broadcast access differs between events. An interview posted on a media company’s site can exist apart from the original WEF session.

Getting there in the dead of winter

Davos sits high in the Graubünden canton of eastern Switzerland and the mountains are a big part of its charm. Snow can wreck a travel plan though. Most visitors arrive by Swiss rail and a trip from Zurich involves connections. Driving is an option too with road conditions shifting by weather and local restrictions.

Beds and seats on public transport vanish fast once Annual Meeting week arrives. Security arrangements can also slow movement around certain buildings. Route planners tend to promise a smooth trip right up until official delegations and event visitors pack the town. Practical details on access and services come from the local tourism office and the transport operators.

The hotel puzzle

Finding a room is where the real headache starts. A hotel beside the Congress Centre may seem ideal on the map and some of them carry restrictions or booking arrangements tied to the event. Properties elsewhere in Davos offer different access to rail and local transport. Some visitors look outside town when central options run out. That adds a longer daily journey and more exposure to winter disruption.

Independent gatherings spread across many different buildings and a hotel advert claiming to sit close to Davos says little about the real address. Only after the event venue is confirmed does a hotel’s location start to matter.

Border rules

Swiss border rules follow the Schengen system and your passport along with your immigration status decides what paperwork you need. The official Swiss government pages spell out the visa details for each situation. An event invitation may count in a visa application. It never grants permission to enter Switzerland. Hotel bookings and confirmation of attendance at an independent gathering share that limit.

Then comes the January weather. Snow and freezing temperatures are a normal part of a Davos winter and the pavements between venues glaze over with ice. A coat made for a mild city winter would leave you shivering through a long evening outdoors in the Alps.

Does the business case hold up?

So many influential people squeeze into one small area for a few days that Davos grabs attention almost by default. That creates conversations between people whose schedules rarely overlap. The invitation system at the official meeting makes planning harder than at a typical trade exhibition. The bills for travel and accommodation run high.

The trip makes the most sense when it is built around one specific event. A credible organizer’s invitation gives the trip a clearer purpose and so does confirmation that a particular discussion will happen. Arriving only because international executives will be around leaves much more to chance. Independent organizers run the surrounding programme separately from the WEF and every venue sets its own access.

Quick answers

The 2027 Annual Meeting fills January 18 through January 22 in Switzerland. Its main gathering takes place at the Davos Congress Centre and the local event listing anticipates approximately 3000 participants.

The official meeting is invitation only so tickets are off the table for ordinary visitors. Independent events elsewhere in Davos set their own rules.

The Open Forum will not take place in 2027. The World Economic Forum announced in September 2026 that it was discontinuing the Open Forum Davos.

Online viewers get digital coverage from the Forum which livestreamed sessions in previous years. Specific 2027 broadcast details will appear in its published programme.

Many gatherings during Davos week are organized independently so they are not official sessions and each carries its own admission requirements.

What comes next

The dates already sit on the calendar and the Congress Centre is preparing for another January gathering. The programme and participant list will take shape as the World Economic Forum announces them. Meanwhile the wider town will collect its own conferences and private gatherings from different groups.

The disappearance of the Open Forum adds one more change to a week with complicated access arrangements.