The Davos World Economic Forum 2008 had as its theme a call amongst business, government and civil society leaders for a new brand of collaborative and innovative leadership - a very similar theme to the one the Creative Leadership Forum has chose to explore this year.

As I scanned the digital commentary on this event from Google News alerts, You Tube, blogs etc in the hope of some powerful insight, I felt a deep cynicism arise in me. I was reminded of A Map of the World a play I worked on as Associate Director of the Sydney Theatre Company in the early 80's. Written by David Hare, who is best known for his film script Plenty, A Map of the World is essentially a running debate pitting Vicktor Mehta (played by Roshan Seth, best known for his role as Gandhi) against Stephen Andrews (Zeljko Ivanek), a young, idealistic English journalist who's reporting on a Unesco conference for a ''left-wing literary magazine.'' Their battle is as much personal as ideological, and each man accuses the other of shaping his beliefs to serve his private neuroses.