The 45th annual World Economic Forum is this week. The conference takes place in a snowy, mountainous Switzerland town, Davos, where 1,700 private jets are expected to drop off tons of billionaires and celebrities over the next four-days, Newsweek reports.
That's much more air traffic than the area usually gets. Helicopters are also a popular form of transportation; 20% of last year’s 2,500 conference goers reportedly flew in choppers to Zurich airport.
Attendees include Bill Gates, Google’s Eric Schmidt, Alibaba founder Jack Ma, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Yahoo, CEO Marissa Mayer and Business Insider's CEO Henry Blodget, as well as about 40 world leaders.
Davos is an annual gathering of the world's 1%, and it begins Tuesday. Some guests pay $71,000 or more to attend the conference, which is said to be the ultimate networking event where top business deals get done.
Blodget, who has attended the conference for the past few years, describes why its worth flocking to Switzerland.
"One executive of a major multi-national told me this morning that he and a colleague will meet with 100 clients in the next three days," Blodget says. "Their company sponsors the conference, too, because the branding and association is helpful, but there's nowhere else in the world that they can cram so many high-level meetings into so little time with such efficient travel."
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