Goodbye Davos

By now, everyone living in Park City, Utah, knows where Boulder, Colorado is - whether they like it or not. Davos, Switzerland, could learn about Boulder next.

On April 1, the Sundance Film Festival announced its 2027 move to Boulder. While Boulder will be the primary beneficiary, the entire Colorado Front Range—from Estes Park to Colorado Springs—stands to gain from its social and economic impact. This relocation can potentially shift the center of America’s cultural soft power from the West Coast to the Rocky Mountains.

Under the agreement, Boulder has ten years to develop the infrastructure to host the expanding and prosperous Sundance Film Festival. This goal includes everything from new theaters and hotel rooms to expanded RTD rail service capable of transporting tens of thousands of attendees housed in Westminster, Erie, Broomfield, Superior, and Longmont.

Once Boulder reinvents itself to host 150,000 visitors over eleven days during the winter shoulder season, imagine the other global events it could attract throughout the year.

Since 1971, the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos has brought together leaders from government, business, academia, and civil society to tackle global challenges. But after 54 years, WEF has become a weary, left-leaning spectacle—where world leaders arrive in private jets to warn about global warming, and corrupt officials extol the virtues of austerity while dining on French champagne and Russian caviar. Imagine growing CU’s World Affairs Conference into a global event like WEF.

Jared Polis governs more like a CEO than a traditional politician. Whether it’s the expanded I-70 corridor connecting to world-class ski resorts or a high-speed train from DIA to Boulder, Jared is laying the economic groundwork for Colorado's future. With the infrastructure to support Sundance, Boulder will be poised to host other global conversations that matter.

Think of Boulder as a city and a stage—ready to welcome the world.

— Sina.