Happy birthday Davos

Happy birthday Davos

Davos is celebrating its 40th birthday this year. Yes, for the World Economic Forum and its founder Klaus Schwab, life could really begin at 40.

But don't expect any fireworks or cake in this normally serene Swiss mountaintop town as 2,500 decision-making delegates start to arrive not to celebrate but to try and "decision-make".

That's not  to say there won't be parties, but to attend any of the cocktail events, dinner-parties, champagne receptions, or  Havana cigar nights you have to have a private invitation.

And the number of invites you receive over the five days is decided by how useful the corporate event organisers think you might be.

However, all the parties take place after the business of the day and that covers a very wide spectrum of subjects ranging from how to save the global banking system to finding a cure for prostate cancer.

There will even be talk of climate change, but it will be muted and slightly embarrassed following the farce that Copenhagen was always going to be .

And that in a way is one of Davos's overriding problems.

There is such a range of subjects to cover in five days. The talk is good, if somewhat hampered by insider jargon, But what does it lead to? Where does it go and what does it achieve?

A wide cross-section of society will be represented from the very poorest to the top of the "vested interest"-tree - legislators, businessmen, leaders and senior policymakers will come together all dressed down - ie. tieless - to make decisions that will be noted and may even be discussed again in other forums.

But you just can't help wondering whether Davos has really ever realised its full potential in 40 years.

How different will the WEF be this year, apart from its size that is, from the forum first held forty years ago?

That sounds unfair because I enjoy the debates, they are stimulating and often very constructive, but I wonder what impact they have in the real world outside the snowy mountain retreat of Davos.

I would really like to find out what differences decisions taken here have made in the world over the past 40 years.

Then I'm sure I will say, " Happy Birthday Davos ".