World Economic Forum criticized in the Swiss national media. Since the annual meeting in January 2003 in Davos, an "Open Forum Davos", co-organized by the Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches, is held concurrently with the Davos forum, opening up the debate about globalization to the general public. The Open Forum has been held in the local high school every year, featuring top politicians and business leaders. It is open to all members of the public free of charge. The annual meeting of the forum also has been decried as a "mix of pomp and platitude" and criticized for moving away from serious economics
International Economic Forum of the Americas of Montreal, the Toronto Global Forum, the World Strategic Forum and the Conference of Paris. The International Economic Forum of the Americas was founded in 1995, when Gil Remillard, a former Minister of Justice of Quebec, held an inaugural Conference of Montreal, on June 20–22, 1995. At the time, the globalization of the economies was beginning to emerge at an increased rate. With the fall of communism, the success of the "Uruguay round" in 1989, the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1994 and the beginnings of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the world was ready to