The World Economic Forum (WEF), a non-profit foundation based in Geneva, Switzerland, is better known as the Davos Forum, or simply Davos, for its annual meeting held to size up the challenges facing the global economy. Founded by Klaus Schwab, a German economist and the executive chairman of the WEF, the forum began in 1971 as the European Management Forum. Its motto is: "committed to improving the state of the world."

More than 2,000 global business CEOs, political leaders, intellectuals, and journalists participate in this annual meeting held in Davos, the second largest city in Switzerland. The forum¡¯s 1,000 regular members are global enterprises with more than US$5 billion in turnover. Their support is essential in finding sustainable solutions to improve the state of the world, the forum¡¯s website states.

The theme of the forum¡¯s annual meeting in 2010 was ¡°Improve the State of the World: Rethink, Redesign, Rebuild.¡± The participants in last year¡¯s meeting, including French President Nicolas Sarkozy, stressed the need to address economic imbalances, the ¡°root of the global economic crisis.¡±

The forum will convene its 2011 annual meeting in Davos on Jan. 26-30 under the theme ¡°Shared Norms for the New Reality.¡± The theme reminds us that we live in a world that is ¡°becoming increasingly complex and interconnected but also experiencing an erosion of common values and principles.¡±

¡±The annual meeting provides a rethinking of our systems and exploration of strategies and solutions that have positive transformational implications. Particular emphasis will be placed on addressing the question of ¡®How,¡¯ going beyond analysis and elaborating innovative ideas and solutions to key global challenges,¡± the forum¡¯s website says.

At the start of each year, the forum¡¯s annual meeting provides business CEOs, government leaders, academics and journalists with an unrivalled platform to shape the global agenda for more than four decades.

The forum invites only CEOs of its 1,000 member companies, politicians from the G20 and other key countries, including over 30 heads of state and government, the heads of all major international organizations, the chairs of the 72 Global Agenda Councils, representatives from civil society stakeholder groups, and media leaders representing the top news organizations from around the world.