Cameron vs. Cameron

David Cameron is the iconic Davos figure, and he played the part Thursday as the young, up-and-coming U.K. Conservative Party leader swept through the World Economic Forum, holding forth before journalists at lunch and meeting other leaders in the afternoon.

But the in-demand ticket at Davos was for a conversation with James Cameron, director of the blockbuster movie, "Avatar," who was to meet about 50 Davos participants at a local theater and talk about the technology and ideas behind what has become the world's biggest-ever box office hit.

The seats were gone before most Forum participants even arrived in this Alpine village earlier in the week.

That didn't keep people from identifying the parallels between the Avatar storyline -- about the fight against a greedy corporation trying to exploit a distant plant for wealth -- and the running Davos conversation about the balance between economic growth and development.