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Davos meeting a who's who
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January 21, 1999: 6:58 p.m. ET
Gore, Rubin & Gates just a few of the movers and shakers headed to Davos
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Robert Rubin will be there, and so will Al Gore, Bill Gates, Nelson Mandela and Gerhard Schroder, the newly elected chancellor of Germany.
In fact, when the World Economic Forum's annual meeting gets underway next week in Davos, Switzerland, it will be hard not to run into someone famous.
And that's just what the World Economic Forum wants.
Billed as one of the biggest gatherings of its kind, the week-long conference in the Swiss Mountain resort aims to bring some of the brightest minds together to talk about such weighty issues as the outlook for the world economy, the frantic pace of mergers and the latest breakthroughs in science.
Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, who will be attending the conference with his deputy Lawrence Summers, described the Forum as a place to exchange ideas.
"It is an opportunity, in a very short period of time, to see a lot of people," he told reporters in a briefing last week.
Gore to kick off meeting
This year, vice president Al Gore will kick off the conference on Thursday, along with a strong contingent of U.S. officials including Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky, Commerce Secretary William Daley and Energy Secretary Bill Richardson.
Gore, the highest-ranking U.S. official ever to attend the annual conference, is likely to attract attention not only for his views about the current political crisis in Washington but also for his outlook on the role the United States will play in the global economic picture as the 21st century begins.
Other top figures expected at the gathering include: Nelson Mandela, President of South Africa; Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations; Muhammad Hosni Mubarak, President of Egypt; Stanley Fischer, First Deputy Managing Director for the International Monetary Fund and Yevgeny Primakov, Prime Minister of Russia.
From the business world, the list of invited guests reads like a page out of the Fortune 500 directory: Microsoft Corp (MSFT). Chairman Bill Gates; Dell Computer Corp.'s (DELL) Michael Dell; Daimler-Chrysler's (DCX) Robert Eaton and Sun Microsystems Inc.'s (SUNW) Scott McNealy.
"As a pioneer company providing technologies that have led to a digital economy, we can't ignore the difficult issues raised by it," McNealy said. "We must tackle these issues -- from encryption to taxation to protecting privacy -- head on if we want to ensure a fair, competitive environment."
CNNfn providing exclusive coverage
CNNfn Interactive will provide comprehensive coverage of the Economic Forum with regular reports and exclusive interviews from Davos all week at the following URL: (http://cnnfn.com/specials/davos). In addition, CNNfn Interactive will offer videostreaming of key interviews and special access to World Economic Forum briefing transcripts and other material from the meetings.
Held January 28 through February 2, the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting theme this year is: "Responsible globality: managing the impact of globalization." 
-- by senior producer Jerry Dubrowski
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