Overheard in the Davos shuttle: “I’m from a California robotics start-up. And what part of China are you from? Of course, I meant Korea. I knew Korea.”
There are many traditions at Davos, where the 2015 annual meeting of the World Economic Forum ended on Saturday: the cow bell rung to signal the start of a plenary session; the sight of a phalanx of security guards fighting off the cameramen as the WEF chairman Klaus Schwab parades Angela Merkel through the Congress Hall; the discovery of human remains in the snowdrifts the morning after the Russian oligarch's party.
OK, maybe not the last one, I made that up to get a cheap laugh.
But much of Davos is made up of mystique and ritual that have built up over the 44 years that the event has been held in the little town that insists on calling itself the “highest city” in Europe, whatever that might mean.
One of the most venerable of these traditions is “the impromptu conversation with a stranger on the Davos shuttle”.
Walking around the town during WEF week is not a very attractive prospect.
The roads and pavements are treacherously icy, the crowds can be big and bustling, and the distance from Congress Hall to some of the outlying hotels daunting, especially with the Alpine trails to negotiate.
The Audi limo service is an option, but an expensive one. Better by far to use the free shuttle service the WEF organisers put on every year.
These people carriers can transport six people at a push and also accommodate all the camera equipment the TV crews carry with them.
They're frequent and reliable, with a multilingual Swiss driver who knows the windy little backstreets of Davos like the back of his mittened hand.
And they are great opportunities for off-piste chatter between people from the most diverse of backgrounds, thrown together in the cultural salad bowl that is Davos.
The snatches of conversation tell you a lot about the kind of people who attend the WEF. Here are a few that I just jotted down at random in the course of my shuttle trips last week:
“Of course, on your view it’s a negative 1.75 but there has got to be some upside there, too. Let’s split it over a raclette.”
“But have you seriously given any thought to how prime minister Abe will react? It’s his baby and he won’t like it.”
“I’m going to do what I want to do, even if it costs money.”
That last was shouted into a mobile phone in a tone of defiance by a smartly dressed lady of a certain age who looked as if she was in Davos on a husband-finding mission.
But the most illuminating conversation that I managed to overhear was between two superstars of the media world, real big heavy-hitting columnists with one of the world’s top newspapers.
I won’t identify them as that seems sneaky and underhand, but can tell you their daily English-language financial newspaper is printed on pink paper.
Here is the exchange, from the rough notes I jotted down at the time:
She: “Bill Gates is having a party at the Seehof and expects me there. But I don’t think I’ll go.”
He: “No, the Deripaska party sounds much livelier. Will I get in with these shoes?”
She: “Of course, the Russians don’t care what you wear. I don’t think Bono will be there though, he’s still injured.”
He: “Shame, he’s always good for a quote.”
She: “Maybe I should wear the mink after all?” (Much laughter all around).
fkane@thenational.ae
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