I think they have invited too many people to Davos this year. The Congress Centre is heaving and it is very hard to find somewhere to sit. However, I have found a spare seat just outside the prayer room. This could be a useful source of investment tips. I intend to short the shares of any company whose CEO seems to be spending an excessive amount of time praying.

The ostensible theme of Davos this year is the “the shifting global power equation”; or possibly “the shifting equation of global power”. Personally, I think the “the global power of shifting equations” also has a nice ring to it.

Delegates are spending a lot of time pondering profound questions about shifting power in business, politics and technology. However, they also spend quite a lot of time thinking about less profound questions. These include: “Why does the person I’m speaking to have a different coloured badge from me? “I’m sure the person standing at the bar is famous, but who is he – and is it uncool to stare?” “Is there a secret session going on somewhere, to which I have not been invited?”

Since everybody enjoys the status game at Davos, the organisers have added a few extra twists. These include giving people different coloured badges to signify their different levels of prestige. Mere journalists get yellow badges; while “media fellows” like me get white badges. I was quietly congratulating myself on being a media fellow, when I bumped into the editor of “The Economist”. The good news was that he seemed to have the same colour badge as me. The bad news was that he was heading off to a closed session for “media leaders”, which I was excluded from. However, I was then cheered by bumping into another former Economist colleague, who is still stuck on the lowest rung of the ladder – “young global leader”.

Closed sessions are an important part of the status game. I have been invited to a closed session for CEOs (good); as the note-taker (bad). I see it is being heavily trailed on the ft.com site. And you will be able to read a suitably discreet account of the sessions later in the week. I am sure it will be riveting.

Tonight there is a choice of 14 dinner debates. There is one called “The M&A Landscape: developing the 2007 heat-map” which sounds – baffling. There is one on the dollar, one on malnutrition; something on military tensions in Korea. I have opted for the tasting of “Classic Clarets”. Obviously I would prefer to be at the dinner on demographic trends in China. But the clarets dinner is being hosted by the FT’s very own Jancis Robinson, and I feel that as a colleague it is my duty to turn up and give her some moral support.

January 25th, 2007 in davos07 | Permalink