Media Mogul Summons the Powerful to Expound (Rupert to host Confab)

Los Angeles Times ^ | July 28,2006 | Sallie Hofmeister

[abb]

When 250 News Corp. executives gather this weekend for a management retreat at a posh California seaside resort, they'll skip the typical team-building exercises that such confabs are known for. Why role-play when you can pick the brains of actual world leaders and rock stars?

Speakers at the Pebble Beach event will include such political powers as British Prime Minister Tony Blair, former President Clinton and Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres. Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton will opine on remaking complex organizations, former Vice President Al Gore will riff on climate change, and U2's Bono will deliver a keynote address titled "The Power of One."

The singer is likely to focus on his poverty- and AIDS-related crusade, called One. But Bono could just as easily be referring to his host, Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of News Corp.

If there's one man with the power to summon the powerful, mogul watchers agree, it's Murdoch.

"It's his unique persona and his global reach that puts him in a special category," said Jeffrey Sonnenfeld of the Yale School of Management. "He is the fulfillment, although not ideologically, of what Ted Turner aspired to be, in terms of having influence not only culturally but socially. Unlike [Viacom Inc. Chairman] Sumner Redstone, Murdoch is interested in influence as much as affluence."

Call it the Rupert effect. The 75-year-old media maverick personally invited many of the luminaries who will make the five-day retreat an unusually high-powered blend of politics and business. Not only did they say yes, but at least one — Clinton — waived his usual $100,000 speaking fee.

A five-page agenda obtained by The Times reveals what management experts and company insiders say is a testament to Murdoch's unusual global vision...

[abb]

Should be quite interesting...

[American Quilter]

I feel sorry for Shimon Peres, having to address that bunch of terrorism sympathizers (Tony Blair excluded). They must have invited him before the current war started, and probably can't figure out how to uninvite him now.

[Sonny M]

Bill Bratton isn't exactly pro-terrorist either.

[the final gentleman]

I predict that at this comic gathering of politicians, entertainers , educators, publishers, and kooks, the temperature of Pebble Beach, California and the average IQs of those in attendance, will both be in the upper eighties, with readings dipping into the low sixties at night.