Allen & Company’s Sun Valley conference, a billionaires’ playground

THE world’s billionaire media and technology moguls are all gathered in this tiny town in the United States, where massive deals will be inked as movers and shakers party down.

Melinda and Bill Gates.

WELCOME to Sun Valley, Idaho. Population 1394.

Set within the spectacular vistas of Bald Mountain, it’s no wonder the tiny resort town has been a favourite of the rich and famous since Ernest Hemingway sang its praises almost 100 years ago.

For the last 30 years, Sun Valley has become synonymous with the annual media and finance conference hosted by investment firm Allen & Company, which happens at this time every July since 1983.

The attendees of this uber-exclusive hootenanny are minted members of the billionaire club. Or if they’re not, they’re running billion dollar companies.

And they’ve all brought their private jets.

The gathering of media moguls and titans of the technology world is incredibly secretive, and few details escape from within the confines of the resort.

This year’s attendees include, but are not limited to, Warren Buffet, Mark Zuckerberg, Rupert Murdoch, Barry Diller, Sheryl Sandberg, Jeff Bezos, Netflix’s Reed Hastings, Bill and Melinda Gates, Samsung heir Jay Lee, Apple boss Tim Cook, PayPal founder Peter Thiel, Disney chief Bob Iger, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Harvey Weinstein, GoPro’s Nick Woodman and Google’s Eric Schmidt.

The famous roll call also features loads of investors with deep, deep pockets.

The conference is famous for greasing the wheels of big business with huge deals negotiated and inked within the week. Last year, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos struck the deal to buy The Washington Post at the Sun Valley confab.

Wouldn’t we all like to be a fly on those walls?