Next week you need to know about . . . the World Economic Forum

After warning that the financial crisis could fuel a “dystopian future” of social unrest, the World Economic Forum will gather next Wednesday to discuss the world’s most pressing problems. The five-day summit at the Swiss ski resort of Davos will be the largest forum that the nonprofit elite foundation has held since its inception, in 1971, bringing together 2,600 political, business and academic leaders to consider this year’s theme, Great Transformation: Shaping New Models.

Among the public figures expected at Davos are German chancellor Angela Merkel, IMF managing director Christine Lagarde, US treasury secretary Timothy Geithner and UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon. On Thursday, Taoiseach Enda Kenny will be part of a panel discussion on rebuilding Europe. On Friday, he will participate in a meeting of world economic leaders. Last week, the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks 2012 report cited the rising backlash against inequality as a threat to economies around the world. Activists have already set up an igloo camp in Davos to protest against the forum, believing that the decisions of the few were responsible for the crisis of recent years and that the same people should not be the ones to impose a solution.

Though the forum is invite-only and mostly held in private, organisers say that activists will be welcome at its open-forum discussions.