Davos 2010 got down to business without the glitz of past meetings

This year’s World Economic Forum may not have been quite the event the organisers had hoped for.

If you count success in the number of top politicians you can attract, then Davos 2010 was something of a failure.

Yes, French President Nicolas Sarkozy opened the five-day jamboree.

The presidents of South Africa, Mexico and South Korea came to advertise their countries - ahead of the Football World Cup, to attract investment and in the run-up to taking over the G20 leadership respectively.

But overall there was a distinct lack of heavy-hitters, and a late cancellation from German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle left an embarrassing gap in the Saturday schedule —a slot once taken by star turns such as Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Not that anybody really missed Mr Westerwelle and his ilk. “Davos has not many politicians this year, and the better for it,” one forum old-timer told me, and his comment was echoed by other executives.

And so Davos got down to business. This is not a complete list, but in my view four themes dominated this year’s discussions.

Banking reform - With bankers and regulators probing and prodding each other in the search for a solution that —in the words of Standard Chartered bank boss Peter Sands —strikes the right balance between safety and risk: “If we go wrong one way, we’ll have another crisis; if we go wrong the other way, we take the steam out of the recovery.” Bankers were well beaten up by the Davos crowd (just as hedge funds, private equity and sovereign wealth funds were given a hard time in previous years).

It made Deutsche Bank boss Josef Ackermann plead with the audience to “stop the blame game, let’s get on with the job”. The debate also drowned out other big issues such as global food shortages.

“I know it’s more fun to talk about the banking sector,” said a wistful Patricia Woertz, chief executive of agricultural giant Archer Daniels Midland.

Economic recovery - Which most agreed would see Europe in the doldrums, the United States facing a slow recovery, and a shift in the economic balance towards countries such as Brazil, China and India.

Technology - and how it is changing societies, government, companies and human behaviour.

Humanitarian aid -A great opportunity for companies to show their smiley face, but also generating genuine help. Bill and Melinda Gates announced a massive $10bn programme to bring vaccination programmes to poor countries, and plenty of aid organisations hooked up with big business to finance or execute their programmes better.

Unlike previous years, when a “Davos consensus” emerged on key topics, this forum was characterised by confusion and uncertainty. Davos was missing “buzz”, several participants said, it “lacked a theme”

“This is an unusual forum,” said Samuel DiPiazza, retired chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers and member of the forum’s business council. “People are very cautious with what they say, and try to stay out of the spotlight. ”