The Davos World Economic Forum, a conference that annually brings together top political, business, cultural and social leaders to discuss the direction of global economic growth, will return in person between May 22 and 26 this year, the organization said.

The Geneva-based Forum had postponed the annual event in December, a month before it was due to take place, citing the difficulties of holding a face-to-face conference amid the spread of the Ômicron variant of the coronavirus.

"We must establish an atmosphere of trust that is necessary to accelerate collaborative action and address the many challenges we face," said the forum's president, Klaus Schwab, in a statement.

For this year the forum will have as its main theme "working together, restoring trust," reads a statement from the organization. According to the same statement, the debate will focus on the recovery after the pandemic, climate change, the evolution of work and technological changes with the fourth industrial revolution.

In previous years, the Davos conference has brought together the world's top businessmen, such as Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg, as well as world leaders, notably former U.S. President Donald Trump, Saudi Arabia's Prince Mohammad bin Salman, and United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.

In addition to the event in Switzerland, the World Economic Forum has had editions around the world outside the normal calendar, notably in Saudi Arabia. In 2021, plans for an event in Singapore were cancelled due to the pandemic.