Is the World Economic Forum becoming a victim of its own success? Is it more than just too many people trying to talk about too many things? It is certainly an extraordinary event that has become the premier meeting point for businessmen and politicians. Participants pay thousands of dollars to register and then to live in some considerable style for a week in the upscale Swiss ski resort.

With 2,500 delegates milling around the different meeting places under the watchful gaze of almost as many of the world’s media, the challenge is now one of focus. Plenary sessions home in on a single text — this year it was “The Shifting Power Equation.” The real business, however, is done out of the spotlight. This is indeed the real reason why so many genuinely important and extremely busy people jet into Davos. They have a unique chance to meet other decision-makers in an informal and generally friendly atmosphere. If discussions are not being minuted, those with the power to make radical changes can put their cards on the table and take the measure of one other. This is particularly true of politicians from either side of a bitter divide. Thus in 1974, Yasser Arafat and Shimon Peres spent hours in private talks which led to a restart of the Palestinian-Israeli peace process. Had the talks come to nothing, it is possible that the world’s media would not have found out until much later that they had ever taken place. Therefore neither side risked public failure but both had everything to gain from success.

The number of business deals struck behind the scenes at Davos is harder to calculate. A lot of horse-trading certainly does go on. Once when the tenure of top company bosses was longer than the present 18-month average, strong relationships were built among the captains of world industries. Nowadays the emphasis is on short-term tactical rather than long-term strategic business plays. The only rival to Davos is the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank which has spawned a massive jamboree of glad-handing and receptions around the formal conference events. But as with OPEC summits, those who arrive to work the corridors and lobbies are financial or energy specialists who are there to observe and button-hole the main participants. Davos is unique because of the expansive platform it provides for absolutely everyone who attends and the greater part of that platform is private rather than public. Because so many important people attend, there is little chance for grandstanding. This year, even Bill Gates, the world’s richest man, did not particularly stand out.

Some already argue that Davos has outgrown its usefulness. The event is now too big. To be honest, this probably only means that it has become harder to make the easy connections of previous years. But Davos remains the pre-eminent world talking shop. Talking (and indeed listening) is what is in short supply globally for the other 51 weeks of the year. Long may the event prosper.