Demystifying Davos: Behind the scenes with GZERO & Microsoft

GZERO on the Global Stage | GZERO Media

Since its launch in the fall of 2020, GZERO Media’s Global Stage series has been bringing our audience in-depth conversations and coverage from the biggest gatherings in the world—including the UN General Assembly, the Munich Security Conference, and the World Bank/IMF annual meetings.

And last week we were in Davos, Switzerland, for the 53rd World Economic Forum. Perhaps you had a chance to check out our livestream on the risks and rewards of AI, or some of Ian Bremmer’s conversations with newsmakers like Finland’s former Prime Minister Alexander Stubb and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk. But we also wanted to share with you a behind-the-scenes look at a cool workspace that quickly became the go-to gathering spot for everyone from members of the media to heads of state.

Our partner and sponsor for the Global Stage series, Microsoft, hosted a diverse array of guests throughout the week at their café, located on the Promenade directly across from the Congress Center where the mainstage Forum events take place.

Microsoft’s VP of Global Public Affairs, Steve Clayton, took us on a tour of the facility. Fun fact: the rest of the year the café is actually a bowling alley. But for one week in January, it is transformed into an international salon for conversations ranging from digital inclusion to cybersecurity to the power of the metaverse.

More from GZERO Media

"Patriots" on Broadway: The story of Putin's rise to power | GZERO Reports

Putin was my mistake. Getting rid of him is my responsibility.” It’s clear by the time the character Boris Berezovsky utters that chilling line in the new Broadway play “Patriots” that any attempt to stop Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rise would be futile, perhaps even fatal. The show opened for a limited run in New York on April 22.

TITLE PLACEHOLDER | GZERO US Politics

Campus protests are a major story this week over the Israeli operation in Gaza and the Biden administration's support for it. These are leading to accusations of anti-Semitism on college campuses, and things like canceling college graduation ceremonies at several schools. Will this be an issue of the November elections?

The view Thursday night from inside the Columbia University campus gate at 116th Street and Amsterdam in New York City.
Alex Kliment

An agreement late Thursday night to continue talking, disagreeing, and protesting – without divesting or policing – came in stark contrast to the images of hundreds of students and professors being arrested on several other US college campuses on Thursday.

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with Judge Amy Coney Barrett after she was sworn in as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, U.S. October 26, 2020.
REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Some of the conservative justices (three of whom were appointed by Trump) expressed concern that allowing former presidents to be criminally prosecuted could present a burden to future commanders-in-chief.

A Palestinian woman inspects a house that was destroyed after an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, April 24, 2024.
Abed Rahim Khatib/Reuters

“We are afraid of what will happen in Rafah. The level of alert is very high,” Ibrahim Khraishi, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, said Thursday.

Haiti's new interim Prime Minister Michel Patrick Boisvert holds a glass with a drink after a transitional council took power with the aim of returning stability to the country, where gang violence has caused chaos and misery, on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, Haiti April 25, 2024.
REUTERS/Pedro Valtierra

Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry formally resigned on Thursday as a new transitional body charged with forming the country’s next government was sworn in.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives at the Beijing Capital International Airport, in Beijing, China, April 25, 2024.
Mark Schiefelbein/Pool via REUTERS

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken brought up concerns over China's support for Russia with his counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing on Friday, before meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Flags from across the divide wave in the air over protests at Columbia University on Thursday, April 25, 2024.
Alex Kliment

Of the many complex, painful issues contributing to the tension stemming from the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre and the ongoing Israeli attacks in Gaza, dividing groups into two basic camps, pro-Israel and pro-Palestine, is only making this worse. GZERO Publisher Evan Solomon explains the need to solve this category problem.

Paige Fusco

Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, has been engulfed in violent gang warfare and without a leader since its former prime minister, Ariel Henry, was barred reentry to the country on March 12.