Bilderberg Meetings

Bilderberg Meetings, annual meetings attended by 120 to 150 political leaders, government officials, and experts from industry, finance, media, and academia in Europe and North America. The meetings, held in a different European or North American country each year, provide a private, informal environment in which those who influence national policies and international affairs in the West can get to know each other and discuss without commitment their common problems. After each conference a private report of the meeting is circulated only to past and present participants, and in the report speakers are identified only by their country. The meetings were initiated by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands and took their name from the hotel at Oosterbeek, Netherlands, where the first conference was held in 1954. An international steering committee generally selects different delegates each year.