Since Michael Milken’s legendary Predators’ Ball for junk bond investors and LBO artists, Wall Street firms have competed to attract big names and pricey talent to their conferences. UBS PaineWebber chairman Don Marron and Talk magazine editor-in-chief Tina Brown teamed up last month to raise the bar, inviting a memorable group of VIPs to their two-day “Innovators and Navigators” conference in Santa Barbara. Panel topics ranged from how to run a multibillion-dollar multinational to how to win a (real) war; participants included GE chairman Jack Welch, Playboy CEO Christie Hefner, comedian Steve Martin, media banker Steve Rattner, Queen Noor of Jordan, Barbra Streisand, General Wesley Clark, former national security chief Sandy Berger and actor James Woods. UBS PaineWebber used the event to show off some of its latest investment banking acquisitions , among them, former DLJ junk bond maven Kenneth Moelis and ex,Morgan Stanley media banker Jeffrey Sine. “It was an eclectic group,” says Marron. “They appreciated meeting people outside their own area.”
