Even before deal-makers descended on Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum, they were making an important decision: how to protect their feet from the elements.
''What shoes to wear is one of the most important questions,'' said Jeffrey Rosen, deputy chairman of Lazard. A regular at the forum, Rosen is well accustomed to the mix of unpredictable winter weather in the Alps, long walks from the Congress Centre to various hotels, fancy dinners and casual meetings that make zeroing in on footwear a particular challenge for attendees.
It might seem mundane. But comfort is important because, for investment bankers, the main reason for being at the snowy resort town this week is not to linger over presentations about artificial intelligence or to schmooze at the chalet soirees. The point is to meet up with clients and prospective clients. As many as their endurance will allow.
"I'll have between 25 and 30 meetings," said David Solomon, co-head of investment banking at Goldman Sachs. "It would take me a number of months to travel around the world and see all those people."
With thousands of attendees from many of the world's largest companies all convening in the mountain town for four days, the World Economic Forum offers deal-makers a unique opportunity to see dozens of clients in one setting. But with the event taking place over just three full days, that amounts to a unique sort of corporate speed-dating.
Many bankers are known to hole up in hotel suites for the duration of the conference, taking back-to-back meetings and forgoing the official programme entirely.
"We'll use Davos to have a large number of meetings, which are normally 20 to 30 minutes and can be more productive than those where you spend weeks scheduling, travel a long ways, and see someone for an hour," Rosen said.
Some conversations begun in Davos do lead to deal announcements down the road. The failed merger between Omnicom and Publicis had its roots in a conversation between the companies' two chief executives at the forum in 2013. And Solomon said he was working on a project with one chief executive that had its origins in talks that began at the event four years ago.
"Business and political decisions are taken based on the face-to-face discussions people have at Davos," said John Studzinski, global head of Blackstone's advisory business and a regular at the event.
The investment bankers will have plenty to talk about this year. After years of sluggish mergers and acquisitions activity, deal-making took off last year. More than $3 trillion in deals were announced last year, the most since the financial crisis.
Beyond reconnecting with clients, the chance to confer with foreign officials, regulators and representatives from sovereign wealth funds makes a few days in Davos different than an average workday in London or New York.
For those bankers who do manage to roam the halls of the Congress Centre, an intellectual feast awaits. Hundreds of panels will take place on a range of topics like politics in West Asia and the volatility in oil prices.
From these discussions, deal-makers who make time for them can try to divine new insights that might be applicable to whatever it is they're working on at the moment.
"People are there trying to get the big picture, and at the same time there's something quite immediate," said Franck Petitgas, global co-head of investment banking at Morgan Stanley.
"On the one hand, there is immense concentration of time and space and debate," he said. "And on the other hand, there is a lot of perspective and distance."
Although much of the agenda focuses on high-level topics like climate change and globalisation, participants make a point of tying those themes to their mandates back at the office. "The macro topics get down to a business level in a lot of discussions," Solomon said.
What is more, bankers have the chance to hear from a cross-section of economists and government officials that may not otherwise be on their radar.
"Davos provides an opportunity to build trust and forge relationships, but also to do some very powerful listening," Studzinski said. "As much as Davos sets the agenda, it is also a mirror to what's happening in the world."
That said, the World Economic Forum is no crystal ball. Long-time participants of the forum noted that for all the brainpower there in past years, those at the event did not predict significant upheavals in recent years - like the financial crisis or the Arab Spring or the Russian takeover of Crimea.
Instead of predicting the future, the value of the forum is, for many, in the spontaneous conversations that are impossible to plan.
"You have these epiphany moments where someone describes what's happening in the world in a way that you hadn't thought about, and it gives you an entirely new perspective that makes sense," said Rosen of Lazard.
Besides the panel discussions and luncheons, participants keep busy in ways befitting the eclectic group gathered in the Alps. Daily meditation sessions begin each day, and a slew of parties hosted by the likes of the billionaire George Soros and the JPMorgan chief executive, Jamie Dimon, stretch into the evening.
And for those who can escape the back-to-back meetings, insightful sessions on new technologies and biotechnology await.
"I like the sessions on robotics and genetic engineering," Rosen said. "It gives you a sense of the future."
Which brings us back to footwear. To cover all that ground, the right shoe is crucial.
© 2015 The New York Times
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