An updating tally of attendees jetting in to the annual Allen & Co. conference in Idaho.

Moguls gather annually for Allen & Co.’s event in Sun Valley,
Idaho; venues include the Sun Valley Lodge (above).
Lodge: Drew Angerer/Getty Images; Dealmakers: Oxinoxi/Stock.adobe.com
Welcome back to the OG billionaires’ retreat. Each July, executives disembark off private jets in Idaho for investment banker Herb Allen’s exclusive “summer camp for moguls” in Sun Valley. The Allen & Co event, held July 7-11 this year, was once free of reporters but now is more like an annual chase for crumbs of news among journalists on-site. (It’s always a good bet that People Inc mogul Barry Diller will deliver the most quotable lines to press annually.)
The conference founded by the 86-year-old mogul used to stand out as one of the premier gatherings in what’s now called the thought-leader business that counts everything from Davos in Switzerland to the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado to Jeff Bezos’ annual Campfire retreats for VIPs. And that list is only growing as more businesses aim to cater to the narrowest slice of the ultra-rich, invite-only class.
In other words, there may be less mystique to this moguls’ confab when, increasingly, there’s many more stops for the Masters of the Universe to jet off too each year. But, given that there are photojournalists on standby, being at the Allen & Co. conference also serves an optics purpose. It’s a place where execs — name tag and sunglasses on, to-go coffee cup in hand — can be seen. That, too, tells a story of power and who holds it now.
Here’s a running tally of the Hollywood attendees this year at Sun Valley:
-
Neal Mohan

Image Credit: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images YouTube CEO Neal Mohan may arguably be leading the media universe, with the video platform not only becoming a go-to destination on computers and mobile devices but increasing its market share of TV time, too.
-
Bob Iger

Image Credit: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images After formally handing over the keys to the Disney castle to Josh D’Amaro, his successor, in March, Bob Iger rejoined Josh Kushner’s venture capital firm Thrive Capital in April.
-
Ted Sarandos

Image Credit: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images The Allen & Co. conference used to have a reputation for being a gathering where massive deals were contemplated, or first mentioned, given that many titans of industry are all in the same place. It’s unclear whether Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, after chasing Warner Bros. for a period last year, is looking to make another major swing.
-
David Zaslav

Image Credit: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images David Zaslav sparked a bidding war that led to the $111 billion dollar agreement to sell Warner Bros. Discovery to Paramount mogul David Ellison. In the process, his Warner sale pay day has been estimated at $886 million.
-
Jerry Yang

Image Credit: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images Billionaire Jerry Yang, the ex-CEO and co-founder of Yahoo!, has been an Allen & Co. regular for well over a decade.
-
Bret Taylor

Image Credit: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images The OpenAI contingent this year at the Allen & Co. conference includes chairman Bret Taylor.

Leave a Reply