SUN VALLEY, Idaho – The festivities are underway at Allen & Co.’s annual “summer camp for billionaires” at swank Sun Valley resort in Idaho, where business moguls kicked off their first full day of sessions on Wednesday.
Security is tight on the resort’s luxurious grounds, where media members were kept at arm’s length from the media, tech and business tycoons who sleepily roamed the grounds ahead of the first gathering of the day at 8:30 a.m. local time.
Paramount Global chairwoman Shari Redstone was one of the few high-profile guests to acknowledge a small group of reporters, giving a hurried greeting as she stopped by the nearby Konditorei coffee shop.
“You guys are gonna go down as the only people who get to take my picture before coffee,” a smirking Redstone said as she rushed past the area with a large coffee in hand.
Other notable attendees who stopped by included former Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg, who shouted “Hey y’all” from across the courtyard while holding hands with husband Tom Bernthal.
SoFi CEO Anthony Noto stopped briefly to chat with a CNBC crew, while executive Bill Heavener paused his stride just long enough to snap a picture of media members on the resort grounds.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore was seen power-walking near Sun Valley’s entrance.
The vast majority of bigwigs on site were more camera-shy — with some walking across a giant green lawn rather than cross paths with reporters.
The most famous attendees of this year’s event, such as Apple CEO Tim Cook, OpenAI chief Sam Altman and Disney boss Bob Iger, were nowhere to be seen early Wednesday after making their entrances at the resort a day earlier.
Allen & Co.’s conference guests have a slate of lengthy scheduled sessions on tap for the day, to go along with the impromptu discussions and backroom chats for which the secretive investment firm’s annual gathering is most famous.
Source
