DAVOS, Switzerland – For an event synonymous with the sort of blue sky thinking that has become an executive cliché, Davos does a good job of narrowing your horizons.

Speed-dating, Davos-style.

This small ski resort has been locked down for the past few days ahead of the World Economic Forum which officially gets under way on Wednesday.

Police stand guard at regular security checkpoints, helpful but firm, diligently and discretely checking credentials. Somewhere overhead a helicopter can be heard but not seen through the swirling snow.

Out on the streets, pedestrians just in from New York, Beijing or London stare at their feet as if they have just met, investing each shuffling step with ungainly caution as they seek to avoid an undignified slip-up on the perilously icy pavement.

The venue itself is a claustrophobic fortress corralled inside chain fencing and walls of plastic sheeting intended to shield the wealthy and powerful from prying eyes and unwelcome guests.

Once inside, narrow stairwells lead down into a warren-like nuclear bunker temporarily reconditioned as a cramped and fetid media center from which large unmarked white doors could just as easily lead you into a conference room as a chemical toilet.

For the business delegates gathered here for the next five days, Davos is a corporate "Green Zone" offering temporary respite from the economic carnage beyond its high security perimeter - mass job losses across continents, industry bailouts and battered stock markets - and a chance to take stock of what many fear will be even more daunting challenges ahead.

This has been styled as a more chastened, less complacent Davos that is in tune with the desperate times - but everything is relative.

Up on the hill at the exclusive five-star Belvedere Hotel, the new age of austerity hasn't arrived just yet.

As the champagne and red wine flows at the evening's welcome receptions for delegates the mood is upbeat as old acquaintances are reunited, Davos friendships rekindled and business contacts schmoozed. For newcomers, a "speed-dating" session for "young global leaders" has been arranged.

Perhaps the economic crisis can wait until the political heavyweights fly in.