Most of the forum’s sessions will be off-record and not attended by the media, with talks targeting globalization and preparing for the future The WEF event is a warm up to the WEF Annual Meeting in Davos in 2019 DUBAI: The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Annual Meeting of the global future councils began in Dubai on Sunday, with the UAE’s Minister of Cabinet Affairs Mohammed Al Gergawi gave the opening remarks at the event. The WEF conference is attended by more than 600 members from government, academia, civil society and business, as well as other fields. The conference will address global, regional and geopolitical issues and explore topics related to the ‘fourth industrial revolution.’ Most of the forum’s sessions will be off-record and not attended by the media, with talks targeting globalization and preparing for the future. The speakers at the sessions will include Former Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, and Norwegian Diplomat Terje Roed-Larsen. The WEF event is a warm up to the WEF Annual Meeting in Davos in 2019, where it will shape its agenda based on the outcome and talks at the sessions.