Swiss Image/World Economic Forum

In his first Diary entry, Shashi Tharoor noted about Davos, "Invitations are prized and much sought after, even though they have to be paid for in real money." So, how much does it cost to go to Davos? Andrew Ross Sorkin reports for the New York Times:

Merely to be eligible for an invitation, a corporate leader must pay an annual fee of 42,500 Swiss francs, or nearly $39,000. On top of that, he or she has to pay an additional $20,000 or so to attend the conference. (That's just the cost of admission — private planes, limousines and fancy ski outfits are, of course, extra.)

And what if business executives want to get invited to some private sessions for industry leaders? The annual cost for that is close to $230,000.

The tab rises to about $412,000 (450,000 Swiss francs) if you want to be counted among the conference's strategic sponsors and bring a delegation of up to five along for the fun.

Yikes. The funny thing about business leaders is that they could probably get the same information and meet the same intellectual and government contacts elsewhere for free, but they pay the exorbitant fees anyway. After all, such individuals are famous and sought after because they're always sharing their ideas in the public arena. Of course, any such encounters probably wouldn't be as convenient, and they certainly wouldn't be as fun. As Tharoor put it, there is "something heady and exhilarating about being able to have them all in one spot in such a short span of time."