Why Milken Conference is a Must for Business Thought Leadership

It’s not everyday that you can sit down at a table and strike up a conversation with Ted Turner or T. Boone Pickens. But this is precisely what happens when 3,000 of the world’s most influential people get together for the Milken Institute Global Conference. For States Hines, a Vistage Chair of more than 20 years, attending the three-day forum has become a regular date on his spring calendar.

The conference puts financial executives, philanthropists, public policy makers, academic experts, journalists and innovators in the same room where they engage in informal, but critical, conversations on the most pressing issues facing the global community. Listening to different perspectives from experts representing such an extensive range of disciplines is just one of the reasons why States finds the conference such an invaluable experience.

“To be able to hear more than 400 of Mike Milken’s best friends give their thoughts about every aspect of the world over a three-day period – an exhausting three-day period – is an experience unlike any other,” States says. “No matter where you sit, whether you’re in a session with 150 people or 300 to 400 people or 2,000 people, no matter what table you sit at, the people who are sitting next to you are world leaders.”

His members find the conference so beneficial that starting in early January they begin looking around for the invitation and discussing who will attend. States, who has attended for the past five years, recalls the first time he went in particular because he was there by himself and the sheer magnitude of the experience was overwhelming. With sessions beginning at 6 a.m. and going until 9 or 9:30 p.m., there is no break.

“If you want to go to the bathroom,” he said half-jokingly, “you’re going to miss something.”

So after about the first 20 hours, his brain was saturated and he had no one there to do a one-on-one or an executive session with to back up what he was hearing. Plus, there are eight to 10 sessions going on all of the time so it’s impossible to attend all of them. The next year he brought six of his members with him and each day of the event they met up to talk about the most significant lesson, idea or opinion presented during that day. This is now his routine and it helps everyone get more out of the experience.

Along with having access to such an extraordinary list of high profile people, attendees get to hear Mike Milken give his perspective on what’s going on in the world.

“You get to hear Mike a few times during the conference. He’s one of the most brilliant people in the world as far as I’m concerned and to get his insight into the world and what it’s doing and how it’s turning and what’s going on both financially and politically is just beyond belief,” States says. “So if nothing else, the conference is worth going to just to hear him do that.”

A special invitation for the Vistage Community: 48% off Milken Conference registration, May 1-4, 2011.  (Promo Code for Vistage Community: Vistage-MMX) REGISTER NOW!

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