Shhhhhh! Media, Tech Moguls Meeting Today. Don’t Tell Anyone!
by Peter Kafka
Posted on November 11, 2008 at 8:08 AM PT
Under normal circumstances, if the CEOs of big public companies–like, say, Cisco (CSCO), Microsoft (MSFT) and Comcast (CMCSA)–speak in front of an audience of bigwigs, it’s news.
And who knows? Maybe John Chambers, Steve Ballmer and Brian Roberts will indeed say something important today and tomorrow at Quadrangle’s Foursquare conference. Chrysler’s Robert Nardelli is speaking too. He might have something newsworthy to say.
But you are unlikely to read about it.
That’s because there’s no press allowed at the private equity shop’s annual conference, which starts this afternoon at New York’s Plaza Hotel.
Or rather, there’s some press at the event. But they’ll be on stage. And they won’t be telling their readers and listeners what they saw and heard.
CNBC’s David Faber, Becky Quick and Maria Bartiromo, for instance, will be moderating panels over the next few days. So will the New York Times’ Andrew Ross Sorkin. And network TV news bigshots Katie Couric, George Stephanopoulos and Brian Williams will answer questions themselves (Portfolio’s Matt Cooper will be moderating that one).
Am I crabby because I asked (nicely) and couldn’t get in myself? Nah. It’s Quadrangle’s event, and they can run it any way they want. But it does look like a pretty good gathering of worthies. Maybe I’ll park myself in the Plaza’s lobby and see if I can bump into some of them.
Want to join me? Here’s the agenda for next two days:
Tuesday 11/11
2:00 PM WELCOME
Joshua L. Steiner (Quadrangle)
ONE ON ONE WITH JOHN CHAMBERS (Cisco)
Moderated by Jim Citrin (Spencer Stuart)
WHO DO YOU TRUST: INFORMATION AND NEWS IN AN OPEN WORLD
Tom Glocer (Thomson Reuters), Nancy McKinstry (Wolters Kluwer) and Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook)
Moderated by David Faber (CNBC)
ALL ABOUT WIRELESS
Jean-Bernard Lévy (Vivendi), Naguib Sawiris (Orascom Telecom) and Ben Wolff (Clearwire)
Moderated by Steven Rattner
4:15 PM BREAK
GOING IT ALONE IN AN INTERCONNECTED WORLD
Philippe Dauman (Viacom), Charlie Ergen (EchoStar) and Robert Kotick (Activision)
Moderated by Becky Quick (CNBC)
GLOBAL E-COMMERCE: $500 BILLION AND GROWING
Barry Diller (IAC) and Hiroshi Mikitani (Rakuten)
Moderated by Steve Hasker (McKinsey)
6:15 PM COCKTAIL RECEPTION
Grand Ballroom Foyer
The Plaza
Wednesday 11/12
8:30 AM WELCOME
ONE ON ONE WITH STEVE BALLMER (Microsoft)
Moderated by Ken Auletta (The New Yorker)
INNOVATION AND THE NEXT BIG IDEA
Jean-François Decaux (JC Decaux) Robert Stephens (Geek Squad founder?) and Jim Wiatt (William Morris)
Moderated by Andrew Ross Sorkin (New York Times)
A CONVERSATION WITH SAM ZELL (Equity Group, Tribune Co.)
Moderated by Joanne Lipman (Portfolio)
10:00 AM BREAK
COOP-ER-TITION: A CONVERSATION WITH PETER CHERNIN (News Corp.) AND BRIAN ROBERTS (Comcast)
Moderated by Ken Auletta
REBUILDING A BRAND FROM THE TOP DOWN
Dan Hesse (Sprint) and Robert Nardelli (Chrysler)
Moderated by Maria Bartiromo
NOON Concluding Luncheon
CAMPAIGN 2008: IN FRONT OF THE CAMERA AND BEHIND THE SCENES
Katie Couric (CBS), George Stephanopoulos (ABC) and Brian Williams (NBC)
Moderated by Matt Cooper (Portfolio)
[Image Credit: PinkMoose]
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Comments
That list of journalists who would participate in such an event and not be free to tell people what was said afterwards are sell-outs. It’s a conflict of interest for them to be making big bucks and then ignore the readers they supposedly serve. This is a journalism 101 concept, and they ought to know it.
Everyone has their price, I guess. They have no right to call themselves journalists, because they are not. Unless of course, they’re doing it for charity and not taking money to be there. Even then, it conflicts with their profession to agree not to talk.
Posted by Eric Welch at November 11th, 2008 at 10:19 amnothing said there will be worth a headline anyway… a bunch of wanking and shanking
Posted by Sam Harrison at November 11th, 2008 at 3:03 pm