Every year the planet’s political, business, and media elite descend on Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum – upending an otherwise small and peaceful Alpine town.
The more than 3,000 executives spend the weeklong conference moving between three meeting venues: an ice rink, a convention center, and Kurpark Village, a purpose-built, 65,000 square foot chalet.
But when the WEF is not in town, Davos is primarily known as a skiing destination, with more than 45 hotels and resorts in the city with a permanent population of just over 10,000.
Hans-Rudolf Rütti, a hotelier who managed Steigenberger Grandhotel Belvédère, in Davos, told Business Insider that in advance of the conference much of the hotel is emptied of other guests, so that staffers can prepare for WEF. During the conference itself, only people attending the WEF are welcome at the hotel.
“We have X-ray machines and metal detectors, and each and every person has to go through these to enter the building,” he said. “It’s almost like an airport.”
Four shuttle lines move the WEF guests from those hotels to their meetings, while other amenities are centrally located with the conference center, Severin Podolak, the head of event management and operations for the WEF, told the New York Times.
The WEF also organizes many of the meals for their guests and ensures that accommodations are up to par – though the conference’s exclusive after parties are primarily organized by attendees, not the conference itself.
Inside the town’s hotels, normal work is supplanted by special procedures and accommodations specifically for conference guests. Many of the hotels bring in extra staff members to ensure smooth operations for the entire week.
“I hardly get any sleep, maybe three or four hours a night. A lot of chocolate bars and Redbull help to keep morale up. I get to see the employees with big eyes, and when they finish their work day, they say, ‘I met him, I met her, I’ve met Angelina Jolie,’” Rütti told Business Insider.
“People don’t really get tired until the moment they’re done working, then within seconds, they fall asleep. But when you’re within the process of all that work, you don’t have time to think about it.”
Click through to see behind-the-scenes at Davos and the World Economic Forum.
