The World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting returns to Davos in January (19-23rd), bringing together leaders from business, government, civil society, academia and the next generation at a moment of profound global uncertainty, but also opportunity.
This year’s meeting is framed around ‘A Spirit of Dialogue’. In an era of fragmentation, mistrust and accelerating change, cooperation is set to be both harder and more essential than ever.
Against a backdrop of geopolitical tension, rapid technological advancement, climate risk and shifting economic models, the Forum’s 56th Annual Meeting will focus on five interconnected questions where public-private cooperation can make a meaningful difference:
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How can we cooperate in a more contested world?
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How can we unlock new sources of growth?
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How can we better invest in people?
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How can we deploy innovation at scale and responsibly?
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How can we rebuild prosperity within planetary boundaries?
Together, these themes set the agenda not just for Davos week itself, but for the year that follows.
Why Davos matters in 2026
Today’s crises are deeply interconnected.
Economic resilience can’t be separated from skills, technology can’t be divorced from trust, and climate action must work for both people and prosperity.
Davos exists as an impartial platform for dialogue, one that brings together diverse perspectives to move beyond rhetoric and towards practical, system-level solutions. Nearly 3,000 participants from close to 130 countries will convene in the snowy town this year, with sessions from representatives across regions, sectors and generations accessible globally through livestreams and digital coverage.
For communicators everywhere, Davos is a signal-setting moment.
What Formative is doing at #WEF26
At Formative, we know that Davos is where strategy meets speed.
We’re excited to take this year’s spirit of dialogue and turn it into content that resonates long after the meeting ends.
For years, we’ve been supporting our clients before, during and after the Annual Meeting, helping them to translate complex global conversations into clear and compelling comms.
But what have we been up to this year, and what’s to come?
Before Davos, we work with our clients to:
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Identify the themes and narratives most relevant to their business
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Develop social and editorial strategies aligned with the Davos agenda
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Build out content calendars with report, social and asset copy.
During Davos, our teams operate live:
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Live-clipping key sessions into platform-ready social content.
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Updating the Forum’s daily ‘live blogs’ with key quotes, stats and ideas shared in sessions.
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Supporting the Forum’s in-house social and editorial teams with fast-turnaround social copy, blogs and ideation.
This year, two of our team are heading to the writers' hub in Geneva to support the team on the ground to produce daily live blogs, insights and analysis as the discussions unfold.
After Davos, we help keep momentum alive:
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Turning live insights into longer-form thought leadership
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Extending narratives into executive storytelling
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Ensuring Davos doesn’t end on the Friday, but continues to shape communications throughout the year.
The conversations shaping Davos 2026
The priorities that emerge at the Annual Meeting shape messaging and content output long after the snow melts, but what are the key conversations set to be this year?
Cooperation in a contested world
A world of 3.1% growth and rising geopolitical tension is not yet a crisis narrative, but a slow-burning risk story. With strategic rivalry, trade restrictions and fragmentation eroding the assumptions that have underpinned 30 years of globalisation, building a new model of cooperation has never been more important.
At Davos this year, the Forum’s Global Risks Report 2026 and Global Cooperation Barometer will help to map where cooperation is still possible – on issues like climate, data and health – and where it is breaking down.
Growth in a fragmented economy
With the global economy expected to grow by about 3.1% in 2026, this looks at first glance more resilient than many predicted a few years ago. But that resilience masks deep divergence, with the IMF expecting advanced economies to hover around 1–2%, while large emerging markets such as India remain closer to 6.5%.
This uneven growth means discussions at Davos will focus on innovation, human capital and integration as drivers of sustainable growth, and of course, Gen AI will be central to the dialogue as both a productivity catalyst and a governance challenge.
Investing in people
According to the Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025, automation will create 170 million jobs, while displacing 92 million roles as companies adapt to technological change. At the same time, employers expect skills gaps to be their main barrier to transformation and plan to prioritise upskilling and reskilling at scale.
That data will underpin this year’s live sessions on reskilling, workforce transitions and ‘good-jobs’ economies.
Deploying innovation responsibly
This year’s Annual Meeting lands at a point where AI, quantum computing, biotech and new energy systems are beginning to converge. In fact, AI is projected to add over $15 trillion to global GDP by 2030. While this convergence accelerates innovation and investment, it also magnifies risks that markets alone cannot address.
The Forum’s Global Cybersecurity Outlook provides an annual stress test of digital resilience and will shape conversations at Davos as leaders debate scaling new technologies, upgrading energy grids, and improving equitable access to innovation.
Prosperity within planetary boundaries
The planetary pillar at Davos 2026 is anchored in a blunt economic proposition: nature loss already affects around three-quarters of the Earth’s land surface, and shifting to nature‑positive business models could unlock roughly $10 trillion annually by 2030.
At the same time, the Forum’s energy transition work shows that countries are moving at very different speeds on decarbonisation, security and access, with equity becoming as central as emissions.
The conversation in Davos is set to be less about whether to transition and more about how… and who pays.
How to follow what’s happening at Davos
Much of the Annual Meeting will be accessible throughout the week:
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World Economic Forum social channels will share live sessions and insights from the meeting using #WEF26.
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The World Economic Forum website will host live-streamed sessions, articles and opinion pieces before, during and after the event.
In a world that needs more dialogue (and better storytelling), Davos remains a critical moment.
Follow us on LinkedIn here, and if you would like to know more about live coverage or bespoke corporate content, please email hello@formative.agency.
