DISCLAIMER: Things I am not: an accountant, a lawyer, a fiduciary to any reader, or a registered advisor. I’m just a guy writing a newsletter so none of this constitutes any tax, accounting, legal, life, or investment advice.

Following up from last week

I received a lot of feedback from last week’s issue, in fact the founder of DXYZ even joined as a subscriber. I also heard from others who are working on similar products and will look to do similar breakdowns of those as they hit the public markets.

This week we’re back with another In The News, and cover Milken Institute’s Global Conference which officially starts on May 5th in Beverly Hills at the Beverly Hilton. What happens, why do people go, and most importantly? How best to experience Milken

In The News
Milken’s Global Conference

That time of year is coming, when Milken Institute’s Global Conference becomes the talk of the financial world for four days. You’ll see it featured on CNBC and Bloomberg and things said in the sessions will be reported worldwide by the hundreds of press in attendance.

But what is Milken? What’s inside? Who is there? How do I best “do” Milken?

I decided to write this primer ahead of this years conference as it is one of the most common questions I get when I asked people “Will you be in town for Milken?”

IMPORTANT — This is a real question, if you’re going to be in town, let me know!

Global Conference

Why is it called the Global Conference? Because it’s their one conference that focuses on the entire world. They have other conferences with specific focuses on healthcare, Africa/Europe/EMEA, and Asia but the Beverly Hill conference hits on everything. This means that people from around the world join.

Last year alone I met people in from all over the United States and the world including New York, Arusha, Tokyo, Dubai, London, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and many other places both near and far. It truly is a global conference.

Not only are the attendees geographically diverse but the categories of focus at the conference aren’t just the normal things you may see covered at the typical finance, family office, or venture conference. Rather Global Conference is a mix of many important and impactful categories in one — with finance being just one of them (though the one that brings in lots of the funding).

Milken Institutes

There is a reason the conference is so varied and interesting. It’s not a normal capital intro conference put on by an organization with a sole focus of profiting from throwing needless capital intro events which fail to meet the mark (for either side of the table), Milken is put on by a non-profit.

The Milken Institute has nine centers for which they conduct research and convene experts. These centers are what drive much of the thematic content and also are for what the meetings that occur on Sunday (when the conference is on but there are no public events) are all about. They are private sessions covering topics related to the centers.

These centers include Center for Financial Markets (duh), Center for Public Health, Center for Strategic Philanthropy, Faster Cures, and the Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream, amongst others.

Looking at these topics you begin to understand how a conference can make sense when it covers such a broad array of topics and has a wide range of speakers (as covered in the following paragraphs).

Because of the diverse set of institutes you are left with a conference that is unique and interesting to attend. You have a choice of sessions in all windows and the sessions are rarely similar in theme or content. You aren’t going to be choosing between a session about QSBS vs one about 1031 exchanges here.