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A ConvCast Field Guide after Vanity Fair's Summer 2026 dispatch, “Conference Calling”

Conference
Calling

Eight gatherings. One guest list the rest of us will never be on. From an Alpine village in January to a Riyadh ballroom in October, this is the season when the world's power stops answering email and starts shaking hands — and ConvCast is keeping the invitation card.

The Season · January → October 2026 · Eight Rooms
JanDavosConcluded MayMilkenConcluded SpringWNDRConcluded JunG7 ÉvianConcluded Jul 7–12Sun ValleyIn Session Late JulGoogle CampNext Up OctFII RiyadhUpcoming SecretCampfireOff Record
The Eight Rooms

Where the world's power actually convenes

Not the trade-show floors ConvCast usually walks — these are the ones with no press badge, no exhibitor hall, and a guest list that reads like a Forbes index. Here is the who, the where, and the mystique of each.

01 January 19–23 Davos-Klosters Switzerland · 2026 Concluded · 56th Meeting

World Economic Forum“Davos” · theme: A Spirit of Dialogue

Alpine Switzerland ◆ Snow, motorcades & white badges

The original power summit. Every January an 11,000-person ski village swells with heads of state, central bankers, and Fortune 500 chiefs who ski between panels on the state of the world. The archetype it minted — “Davos Man” — is still the shorthand for the global elite.

The Room

~2,800 leaders: prime ministers, tech founders, hedge-fund royalty, and the NGO set, all chasing the same corridor bilaterals.

The Mystique

A fortress of security and $60 hotdogs where a handshake on the Promenade can move a market — or start a war of words.

Official programme → “The mountain that runs the world.”
02 May 3–6 Beverly Hills California · 2026 Concluded · Leading in a New Era

Milken Institute Global Conference“Davos with a tan”

The Beverly Hilton & Waldorf Astoria ◆ Poolside dealmaking

Michael Milken's springtime convocation packs 4,000 participants and 1,000+ speakers into two Beverly Hills hotels for what may be the highest density of capital per square foot in America — sovereign-wealth chiefs and studio bosses trading terms between poolside panels.

The Room

Private-equity titans, sovereign funds, biotech founders, and the philanthropists their foundations answer to.

The Mystique

The deal gets done on the Beverly Hilton terrace, not the main stage. Palm trees, valet Ferraris, nine-figure LPs.

Conference site → “Wall Street, with a tan and a valet ticket.”
03 Spring Montecito California · 2026 Concluded · 5th Edition

WNDRJeffrey Katzenberg's boutique salon

Montecito, above Santa Barbara ◆ ~150 hand-picked guests

The newest velvet rope on the circuit. DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg gathers roughly 150 top creators and CEOs for an intimate, off-stage weekend where Hollywood and Silicon Valley finally share the same campfire — a curated antidote to the mega-conference.

The Room

Studio chiefs, tech founders, marquee creators, and the investors betting on where attention flows next.

The Mystique

Small by design. No exhibitor hall, no livestream — the exclusivity is the product, and the invite is the flex.

The backstory → “Where Hollywood and Silicon Valley share a campfire.”
04 June 15–17 Évian-les-Bains France · 2026 Concluded · 52nd G7

The G7 SummitStatecraft as spectacle

French shore of Lake Geneva ◆ A ring of steel

The one summit where the guest list is seven heads of government plus the EU. France hosted the 52nd G7 in the spa town of Évian-les-Bains — lakeside châteaux sealed behind thousands of troops, with the “family photo” heard round the world.

The Room

The leaders of the world's advanced democracies, ringed by delegations, sherpas, and the largest press corps of any event here.

The Mystique

Glamour by protocol: motorcades on lake roads, a communiqué fought over word by word, and Évian's second turn hosting a summit.

Summit dossier → “Seven leaders, one lake, a ring of steel.”
05 July 7–12 Sun Valley Idaho · 2026 ● In Session Now

Allen & Company Sun Valley“Summer camp for billionaires”

Sun Valley Resort, the Idaho Rockies ◆ Fleece vests & mega-deals

Happening as you read this. Boutique bank Allen & Co. hosts the year's quietest billionaire reunion — the conference where Disney once bought ABC and Amazon eyed the Washington Post over morning hikes. No press inside; the only pictures are of the moguls walking to breakfast in their fleece.

The Room

Bezos, Gates, Zuckerberg, Altman, Cook, Iger, Barry Diller, David Zaslav, Ted Sarandos and the Murdochs — spotted arriving this week.

The Mystique

A valley of parked Gulfstreams and a strict no-phones ethos. The deals aren't announced here — they're seeded here.

Who's on the mountain → “Fleece vests, private jets, and the next merger.”
06 Late July Sciacca, Sicily Italy · 2026 Next Up

Google CampThe billionaires' beach party

Verdura Resort, the Sicilian coast ◆ Yachts & private jets

Started in 2012 by Google's founders as their own answer to Davos, the end-of-July retreat draws tech royalty and A-list celebrities to a cliffside Sicilian resort. Guests have arrived by $400-million yacht to hear Coldplay play the ancient Temple of Hera — a spectacle the tabloids can't resist.

The Room

Reported past guests span Obama, DiCaprio, Katy Perry, Harry & Meghan and a rotating cast of founders and moguls.

The Mystique

A flotilla of superyachts off Sciacca, concerts in Greek ruins, and a strict off-record rule that only deepens the intrigue.

Invitation only · no public site “A superyacht flotilla and Coldplay in the ruins.”
07 October 26–29 Riyadh Saudi Arabia · 2026 Upcoming · 10th Edition

Future Investment Initiative“Davos in the Desert”

King Abdulaziz Int'l Conference Center ◆ Vision 2030 capital

The upstart that rewrote the map. In a decade, Saudi Arabia's FII turned Riyadh into a compulsory stop for anyone chasing sovereign-wealth money — Wall Street chiefs and AI founders filling gold-trimmed ballrooms to pitch the world's deepest checkbook. Its 10th edition lands in late October.

The Room

Gulf sovereign funds, global bank CEOs, and the technologists courting a trillion dollars of Vision 2030 capital.

The Mystique

Opulence at scale — and the year's most-watched barometer of who is, and isn't, in the Kingdom's good graces.

FII Institute → “The desert Davos with the deepest checkbook.”
08 Undisclosed Santa Fe New Mexico Off the Record

CampfireJeff Bezos's secret salon

A private resort near Santa Fe ◆ No phones, no posting

The most secret of them all. Each year Jeff Bezos hand-picks around 80 guests — novelists, astronauts, Oscar winners, the occasional head of state — for three off-record nights in the New Mexico high desert. No livestream, no press release; the guest list is the whole point.

The Room

An eclectic cast of artists, scientists and moguls chosen for how interesting they are — not what they can buy.

The Mystique

A literary salon crossed with a billionaire's retreat, held so quietly most of the world never learns the year it happened.

Strictly invitation only “The most exclusive campfire in America.”
Why ConvCast is keeping the list

For twelve years we've walked the show floors. This is where the floor gets set.

CES, NAB and SXSW are where the industry meets the public. Davos, Sun Valley and their kin are where a smaller room decides what the public gets to see next. Vanity Fair called the circuit “Conference Calling” — ConvCast calls it the story behind the story, and we'll be tracking every arrival, every rumor, and every deal seeded on a mountain or a yacht.

The full show calendar → Back to ConvCast

Reporting compiled by ConvCast from public accounts of each gathering · framing after Vanity Fair, Summer 2026, “Conference Calling” · dates current as of July 2026.

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