Davos has left its footprint in almost every continent. In Australia the version is called ‘The Australian Davos Connection’, now running for the eleventh year in a far-flung but exotic beach resort at Hayman Islands. It is different than the well-known India Summit in more ways than one. First the India Summit is now locked in an interminable partnership with CII with limited flexibility. The CII, notwithstanding its strong industry and government connection and even after broadening its agenda, is still perceived as an industry outfit. The Australian Davos Connection is an independent entity. Even though it has the support of banks and corporates, it is not perceived as a lobby group seeking policy changes.

Second, for the India Summit, the venue is always Delhi. Delhi has multiple advantages, however, except for the organisers, most other participants are not locked into any real engagement and choose to breeze in and out of the venue preferring to participate in their limited panel discussions. In Australia, Hayman Islands—the venue of the retreat—is over two hours by flight from Sydney and then a one-and-a-half-hour cruise from the nearest airport. The participants closely interact for over two days often in informal and unstructured social events.

Finally the participants at this year’s Australian summit where I was invited as a panellist for four sessions had the chance to interact with key central and federal ministers, policy makers, civil servants and academics. There was also high-quality participation from other countries, particularly the United Kingdom, Japan and China. All together a group of about 300 engaged in several plenary sessions, parallel interactive sessions, including night cap meetings, mirroring more or less the Davos structure.

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