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The
dinner party was a microcosm of a newly dominant sector of American
business."  "This goes beyond all known schmoozing. This is like some kind of virtual-intellectual conspiracy-in-restraint-of-trade." — Bruce Sterling |
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This
media life Rupert kept taking. He grew more expansive, more conspiratorial, even (although it did seem like he'd conspire with anyone), his commentary more intimate. We proposed that he come with us to the dinner we were scheduled to go to — John Brockman's Billionaire's dinner, a TED ritual. ... |
It
happened here one night last week over chicken and polenta at the
annual private dinner, given by the New York literary agent John
Brockman, formerly called the Millionaires' and Billionaires' Dinner
after the rich techies who traditionally flocked to TED. There were
still a few members of that endangered species scattered about, among
them Nathan Myhrvold, the retired Microsoft chief technology officer,
who gave an electrifying discourse at the 1997 TED about dinosaur
sex. .... |
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Where that will take us now is anybody's guess, but it won't be back to headier times, says John Brockman, a New York literary agent who became known in Silicon Valley over the past several years for throwing an annual "Billionaires Dinner." He wants to change the name of the event. "This year," he says. "It's the 'Joy of the Ordinary Income Dinner.' " Bon
appetit and pass the Rolaids. |
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At the Growing Billionaires' Dinner, Tech Stars Move to Grown-Ups' Table MONTEREY, Calif. — Like a lot of things in the frothy Internet world, it didn't take long for an annual get-together at one of the industry's trendiest conferences to show mindboggling growth —in this case a change in its name from the Millionaires' Dinner to the Billionaires' Dinner. ... the crowd was sprinkled generously with those who had amassed wealth beyond imagining in a historical eye blink. The muscle and money behind tech stars such as Microsoft, America Online, Sun Microsystems and others had gathered at the Technology, Entertainment and Design Conference here. When
the host, New York literary agent John Brockman, added three zeros
to the dinner last year, there was more than a bit of giggly discomfort
among the attendees. The general agreement was that the provocative
Mr. Brockman, who also runs a discussion Web site called Edge.org,
was poking fun more than offering a description.... |
— Gary Wolf |
You don't have to be a billionaire to get invited to the "Billionaire's Dinner" tonight in Monterey, Calif. But you do have to know literary agent/ author/ entrepreneur John Brockman, who makes it his business to know who is among the digerati. The dinner coincides with the 10th annual Technology, Entertainment, Design or TED, conference, which brings together Hollywood and Silicon Valley.....Last year's dinner guests included confirmed billionaires Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com Inc. and Steve Case of America Online Inc. as well as likely contender Nathan Myhrvold of Microsoft Corp. It's just a fun gathering for a few of my friends," Mr. Brockman says. The stock market has made new billionaires out of some previous centimillionaire guests, so Mr. Brockman doubled the size of the dinner but claims he still has to turn people away. To add suspense to this year's event, Mr. Brockman promises two surprise billionaires who prefer to remain unidentified. Hint: at least one is unmarried. |
It used to be the millionaires' dinner, but in the enthusiasm of the bull market, Brockman upped it a thousandfold (certainly, among the guests, there were a lot of millionaires — maybe everyone). Of course, the point is not the billionaires per se but the good fellowship that the idea of proximity to billionaires engenders. Does that fellowship disappear just because some billionaires don't want to take a chance on the weather? — Michael Wolff |
It
was billed as the "Billionaire's Dinner" ... But with cameo
appearances by Conde Nast editorial director James Truman, Time Out
New York's Cyndi Stivers, Fortune's Peter Petre, Powerful Media's
Kurt Anderson, news anchor Forrest Sawyer and Industry Standard columnist
James Fallows, this was the year when chic New York media met the
geeks. |
John
Brockman |
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— David Bunnell |
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Chronicler of the digerati, John Brockman, handpicked the best of breed at last week's Monterey TED(technology, entertainment, design) conference to attend his yearly soirée, where technology's philosopher-kings mused on all things Internet, multimedia. — Trish Williams |
John Brockman, Editor and Publisher |
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