Bilderberg meeting: big egos and plenty of smoke

The annual meeting of Bilderberg “club” starts tomorrow. During three days pretty influential people from the global corporate world will sit together with politicians, opinion-makers and some very senior security service masters to review some of the megatrends – as they call the key challenges of today´s world.

The leader of this initiative is the current boss of AXA, the major international insurance company. He is a well-connected Frenchman.

This is a very secretive conference. Journalists are not allowed in as such. A couple of them will be there but as invitees, in their capacity as leading opinion-makers. They will be there because their writings –opinion columns – do influence a good number of decision makers. Secrecy leads to suspicion. Some people have called the Bilderberg crowd –about 120 to 150 of them every year –the real masters of the universe, the key plotters in terms of the next world events.

Such label is an exaggeration. Many of those in attendance have real power, in their own circles, others have prestige but little power left in their guns –they belong to the category one calls the “has been”. Obviously, there are many very powerful people outside this “club”.

Bilderberg is one of several power meetings. It is above all a networking exercise. It is of course of particular importance when compared with other similar networking opportunities – like Davos –because the number of Bilderberg participants is smaller and therefore the interaction and the bonds among them have a chance of being much more intense.

In the end, there is a lot of smoke and mystery, but very little movement beyond the private interests of the companies represented and the group therapy it provides to people with big egos.