2023 Bilderberg Conference

2023 Bilderberg Conference
*69th Bilderberg Meeting*
2023 Bilderberg Conference; 69th Bilderberg Meeting
Host country	Portugal
Date	May 18–21, 2023
Cities	Lisbon
Venues	Pestana Palace
Participants	c. 130 from 23 countries
Follows	2022 Bilderberg Conference
Precedes	2024 Bilderberg Conference
Website	https://bilderbergmeetings.org/meetings/meeting-2023/

The 2023 Bilderberg Conference or Bilderberg Club was held between May 18–21, 2023 at the Pestana Palace hotel in Lisbon, Portugal.^[1]^[2] The 2023 meeting was the 69th edition of the event.^[3] A Bilderberg Group press release stated that there were approximately 130 participants from 23 countries.^[4]^[2]

Established in 1954 by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, Bilderberg conferences (or meetings) are an annual private gathering of the European and North American political and business elite. Events are attended by between 120 and 150 people each year invited by the Bilderberg Group's steering committee; including prominent politicians, CEOs, national security experts, academics and journalists.^[3]^[5]

The 2023 conference received some media attention due to the participation of several major players in the artificial intelligence space, such as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Google DeepMind chief Demis Hassabis and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.^[3]^[4]

Bilderberg conferences operate under Chatham House Rule, meaning that participants are cannot disclose the identity or affiliation of any particular speaker.^[3] There were no press conferences during or after the event, as is customary.^[1] According to The Guardian, the paper's journalists were able to approach one high-ranking attendee, economist Victor Halberstadt, in a Lisbon pharmacy, but he denied his identity before jumping into a car and heading back to his hotel.^[1]

Agenda

The key topics for discussion at the 2023 Bilderberg Conference were announced on the Bilderberg website shortly before the meeting.^[2] These topics included:

Participants

A list of 128 participants was published on the Bilderberg website.^[6] This list may not be complete, as a source connected to the Bilderberg group told The Daily Telegraph in 2013 that some attendees do not have their names publicized.^[7] Oscar Stenström, Sweden’s chief negotiator for NATO membership, was reported to have been seen at the venue despite his name not being on the list.^[8]

Austria