( CNN ) -- A word to the wise . If you 're going to go walking in snow , take big steps . I was knee deep in a Swiss forest pretending to be the adventurer Bear Grylls when I came a cropper and collapsed face first into a snowdrift . Before I could emerge from my embarrassing predicament , a photograph was helpfully plastered across social media . I held out a hand for help , but Beau , a giant of a cameraman , was too busy laughing . Welcome to the World Economic Forum . This place eats up Davos virgins and spits them out faster than you can say CEO . Veterans like Richard Quest , who is attending his 10th WEF , take great pleasure in warning new CNN producers that it 'll cost a fortune , it 's exhausting , but it 's like no other event like it you 've ever been to before . They 're not wrong . Imagine taking a small Swiss city , laden with shops selling little more than overpriced cuckoo clocks , chocolate and snowboards , surrounding it in barriers of steel and snipers , and inviting the masters of the universe in business , politics and academia to visit . Europe 's highest city is a very strange place . It 's where $ 20 wo n't even get you a portion of pasta , where your pidgin German and French is quietly laughed at , and where any kind of shoes feel like a bad choice . Billy Connolly once said : `` there 's no such thing as bad weather , only the wrong kind of clothing . '' In Davos , everyone 's changing clothes every time they move from ferocious air blowers indoors to the Baltic outdoors . I saw one CEO quickly dump his $ 400 brogues in favor of some slightly ridiculous moon boots . Hunters are stylish and do rather well . My $ 7 discount store rubber attachments have -- so far -- survived intact . Beyond the ring of steel , tourists were rapidly banished as journalists from round the world take over ski lodges and budget hotels . Small businesses clear off as corporate hospitality moves in . Over a weekend I watched a pet shop converted into a plush hospitality suite for Barclays . The RBS lounge looked like no other bank I 've ever been to . If only my local branch in south London was kitted out with comfy sofas and a bar . It would be somewhere to drown your sorrows when you 've smashed through your overdraft . Inside the barrier , once you 've passed armed security , the x-ray machine and the ID card scanner , you 're finally allowed entry to the Kongress Centre ( clearly a typographical error ) using the back entrance though a tunnel made from material not unlike a bouncy castle . It 's brilliant white , and resembles a bio-hazard emergency tent which featured in E-T 30 years ago . Sweating in heavy winter gear under the power of hot air blowers , I soon discovered how my ID badge dictates your right to access , food and hospitality at WEF . Simply put it 's a reinvention of the class system . Journalist purple badge holders are ranked just above pond life , but at least we can get inside the center . White badges are allowed better nibbles . Meanwhile , back in the forest , I struggled to tie a washing line between two trees . I then added some Davos related surveys with clothes pegs . This was a stunt for my show , Marketplace Europe , which showed the plethora of reports which come out to coincide with WEF . The phrase `` it seemed like a good idea at the time '' sprung to mind more than once in the freezing wind , followed by another whispered piece of advice from Richard which I had cheerfully ignored : `` Do n't forget the long johns , Pepper . '' Opinion : Will global elite listen to Pope of poor ? Can Davos make a difference to global inequality ?
Richard , a `` Davos virgin '' shares his experience of attending the iDavos for the 10th time . He is told it 'd cost a fortune and would be exhausting , but also that WEF is nothing like any other event . He discovers how the color of his iDavos badge dictates his right to access , food and hospitality .