★ Milken Institute Global Conference

01Why it matters

Davos assembles governments and multinationals; Beverly Hills in early May assembles the people who allocate money. The room is heavy with limited partners and general partners, and the fundraising calendar of American alternative assets bends around it. Sessions on private credit, health-system economics and long-horizon philanthropy have repeatedly set the terms of debate for the year that follows. In our reading the conference matters most as a compression device: it replaces a quarter of separate meetings in New York, London, Riyadh and Singapore with four days in one hotel, and its value is measured in meetings held rather than panels watched.

02The week around it

Beverly Hills does not close for the conference, but the effect on a few blocks is unmistakable. Wilshire Boulevard between Santa Monica Boulevard and Century City fills with black cars from early morning; the Hilton's driveway runs on a controlled queue; and the hotel bars and restaurant terraces along Canon Drive run at capacity from breakfast until late. Reporting each year describes side meetings held in hotel suites and in the private rooms of nearby restaurants, and much of the practical business of the week happens there.

03When to arrive

The programme opens on a Sunday; Monday and Tuesday are the substantive days and Wednesday tapers by mid-afternoon. Arriving Saturday gives a day to adjust for anyone crossing from Europe or the Gulf, and the informal calendar starts on Sunday evening.

04Where to stay

The Beverly Hilton sits at Wilshire and Santa Monica, and the useful geography is a fifteen-minute walk in either direction. The Beverly Hills triangle to the east, around Rodeo and Canon Drives, holds the hotels most delegates use, with the Waldorf Astoria and the Beverly Wilshire as the nearest landmarks. Century City to the west is quieter, newer and closer to the freeway, and fills with delegates who want a working desk rather than a lobby. Blocks near the Hilton go early, and the fallback each year is Century City or Westwood.

05Access and hospitality

The Global Conference is not public, but neither is it closed. Attendance runs through registration the Institute reviews, and through invitations to its members, partner institutions, public officials, academics and accredited press. The Institute publishes no price list for passes on its conference pages, and the figures that circulate in press coverage are not quoted here. Sponsorship is institutional rather than branded hospitality: partner organisations appear in the programme and on stage more often than as pavilions. Much of the session programme is livestreamed and later posted publicly in full.

06Where the social activity happens

Almost everything visible happens within a few hundred metres of the Hilton. The hotel's pool deck and lobby bar are the daytime meeting rooms of record; the restaurants along Canon Drive take the evening; Century City's hotel bars catch the later conversations. Los Angeles habits shape the week — early breakfasts, long lunches booked days ahead, dinners that end earlier than in New York.

07Getting there

08Practicalities

09History

The Milken Institute was founded in 1991 and is based in Santa Monica; it convened the first Global Conference in 1998 as a comparatively small gathering on capital access and economic growth. It grew through the 2000s into a full-scale conference on financial markets and public policy, adding the health, ageing and philanthropy programmes that now account for much of the schedule. The founder's own history in the high-yield bond market is inseparable from the event's origins and from the coverage it attracts. Its recent character was set in the 2010s and 2020s, when sovereign wealth funds and Gulf institutions became a visible presence and the guest list broadened into technology, defence, sport and medicine.

10Who is there

Limited partners from pension funds, sovereign funds, endowments and family offices; private-equity, private-credit and hedge-fund principals; bank and insurance executives; cabinet-level and central-bank officials; foundation leaders; university and hospital scientists; technology and defence founders; sports-league and media executives; and accredited financial press.