A late and short posting today, because we had to get the programme to the printer. That’s it, no more changes.

Of course, there are inevitably last minute changes of one kind or another. The big one today was that we arrived at the Geneva offices of the Forum to find that Malaysian prime minister Mahathir bin Mohamed had cancelled his trip to Davos. If you follow events in east Asia, you probably know that Mahathir has his hands full at home. Still, it left a hole in our programme. Mahathir was one of the primary speakers at our Friday morning plenary on “It’s not the economy, it’s the society”.

Some fast footwork meant that within six hours (all we had to get it in the programme) we had confirmed Turkey’s prime minister Bulent Ecevit and New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman for the session. I think it’s going to be an even better discussion now: they’re joined by Kurt Biedenkopf, minister president of Saxony (known in Germany as King Kurt), George Soros and Louis Schweitzer, CEO of Renault. Hong Kong’s Ronnie Chan is in the chair.