Sun Valley conference provides big names with a private Idaho

Don Day July 15th, 2007

Sun Valley, Idaho has always been an enclave for the stars. Folks like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis maintain homes in the area, and the walls of the Sun Valley lodge are lined with photos of top-line stars, from Ernest Hemmingway to Marilyn Monroe to Lucille Ball. But for one week each July, the Allen and Co. conference brings stars of the media, business and political worlds to the nation’s first ski resort.

Despite its high mountain location, the area hasn’t been immune to the west’s heatwave of the past few weeks. Temperatures hovered in the mid-90s throughout the day, well above average.

Walking around the main pedestrian walkway between the Sun Valley Lodge and Sun Valley Inn, we quickly saw many big names, some of them clearly sweating from the heat. Since each guest of the conference wore a nametag (no matter how high the voltage of their star it seemed), I found my eyes trying to ever-so-discreetly stare at the tags. The very first person I spotted was InterActive Corp. president Barry Diller - with another gentleman slapping him on the back saying something about “well, you are the biggest shareholder har har.”

Sumner Redstone walked in to the Sun Valley Lodge and attracted many eyes. “The Joost guys” were strolling along a path as well. We also saw New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

A pair of my former KTVB colleagues were freelancing for a national business network. They had a hit sheet of people to capture on tape - two pages filled with color photos and names to make identification easier.

So far, the conference hasn’t produced any news of real value. The announcements usually come weeks later, with a line in the AP copy noting that the deal “was hatched at July’s Sun Valley media conference.”

A special activities desk helped coordinate play time for conference attendees and their families - including mountain biking, hiking, ice skating and others. The Sun Valley Opera House hosted movies, including the Kathryn Heigl film “Knocked Up” that evening at 9 p.m.

Security was tight - but certainly not oppressive. A consultant for Allen & Co. approached us shortly after we arrived and told us the rules - basically that we could shoot and approach conference-goers on any of the public paths, but to avoid areas behind ropes and “private function” signs.

We were working on a sidebar story about Allen & Co. donating a large sum of money to the nearby town of Ketchum for free Wi-Fi access. We stopped one Allen & Co. worker and asked if he could help connect us with someone to interview… “huh… good luck” he said… and walked away.

Our crew scooped up the Wi-Fi story anyway (here’s KTVB.COM reporter Ryan Larrondo’s package) , snagged some b-roll of the conference, taped a few standups and headed home.