There are five "conceptual pillars" to this year's forum, the theme of which is "The Power of Collaborative Innovation." The gathering, from January 23 to 27, will take place against a background of deteriorating economies around the world and increasingly-fraught international geopolitical uncertainty, especially in the nuclear-armed Pakistan.

The first pillar, "competing while collaborating," will look at everything from the disruptive effects of the internet to the ongoing war against corruption.

The second, "addressing economic insecurity," will review at global credit and derivatives markets, and ask how newly empowered actors such as sovereign wealth funds and massively capitalized private-equity firms are changing the way the world does business.

The third pillar, "aligning interests across divides," looks for global solutions to seemingly-intractable problems such as climate change, nuclear proliferation, terrorism, and spiraling healthcare costs.

The fourth pillar, "exploring nature's new frontiers," helps bring the world's most interesting scientists into contact with the politicians and businessmen who can benefit from their work.

The fifth, "understanding future shifts," looks at how a 21st century economy increasingly dominated by Chinese, Arabs, and Hindus will differ from its predecessor.

The trick for participants is to concentrate on those areas they know the least about. In that way they learn the most, don't get bored, and meet the kind of people they would never normally encounter.

The concentration of wealth and privilege in Davos each year disgusts many, and innovations such as the Open Forum, co-organized by the World Economic Forum and the Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches, have done little to alleviate such concerns.

(While the Open Forum is technically open to the public, the general public doesn't find it easy to travel to Davos during a week in which every last hotel has been booked solid for months.)

But the sheer amount of goodwill and hopefulness in Davos probably helps compensate for many of its excesses. If it didn't exist, there would probably be even more mutual incomprehension across countries and cultures than there already is.