Covering Davos

A number of business reporters are in Davos, Switzerland this week covering the World Economic Forum. One of the best places to look for coverage is a blog called “Delving into Davos” being written by reporters from the International Herald Tribune and the New York Times, including Mark Landler, Floyd Norris and Andrew Ross Sorkin.

They’re not exactly breaking news on this blog, but it does give you a feel for what it’s like to be a reporter covering this event and being able to talk to CEOs from around the world as well as other important people. In comparison, my local paper, The News & Observer, talked by e-mail to the one CEO from the area who is attending Davos, which doesn’t quite give you the same feel.

Norris blogged this funny anecdote this morning: “The chairman of one retailer told of checking in at his hotel. As the bellboy carried his suitcase into the elevator, the handle broke.

“Another man on the elevator asked if the bag was of a certain brand, adding that he was the president of the company that made it.

“Told that it was, he advised the executive to send the suitcase back to be fixed.

“To the retailer, the response was something less than satisfactory. ‘If he told me one of my shirts was defective, I’d be writing out a $100 gift certificate,’ he said later. ‘But all he wanted to do was get out of the elevator.’

Writes financial journalist Corey Goldman about the Davos blog: “The IHT/NYT blog is the closest I’ve ever come to getting a taste for what it must be like to be there on the ground — observations on Google founder Sergie Brin’s choice of dress to the irony of gift baskets from Nestle chock full of sweets alongside pamphlets on eradicating world hunger.

“For anyone who’s ever had difficulty figuring out exactly what the World Economic Forum is and why it attracts everyone from Angelina Jolie to Bill Clinton to Bill Gates, take a look.”