The annual Sun Valley media conference has drawn the cream of the corporate crop for more than three decades and this year's guest list is no exception with Disney boss Bob Iger and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg in attendance.
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But as the first day of proceedings kicked off, it was Canada's prime minister Justin Trudeau who turned out to be the hot ticket, out-charming even comedian Jerry Seinfeld and regal romeo King Abdullah II of Jordan in front of high finance's toughest audience.
Attendees told US media outlets that 45-year-old Trudeau's talk addressed the role of morality in public service; the entertainment trade newspaper Variety quoted members of the audience who described Trudeau as "hyper-articulate" and "visionary."
Not far behind morality on the agenda, however, was merger, with some executives talking up the fact that there is still room for consolidation in the US media sector.
Former Fox boss Barry Diller told US media he expected more "media marriages", effectively shrinking the existing pool of US content-producing studios.
Current cases in point: the acquisition of studio DreamWorks Animation by entertainment conglomerate Comcast, and the acquisition of cable network Starz by the studio Lionsgate.
The conference, which is held annually in the the Idaho resort of Sun Valley, is equal parts business and pleasure, with hiking, golf, cycling, rafting and other and recreational sports scheduled in between seminars, panels and meetings.
While Trudeau's talk was intentionally light - he talked about growing up as the son of former Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau - there are some tough topics on the agenda, including the state of the global economy and fallout from Britain's exit from the European Union.
Other topics include the future of cities, the scientific and medical frontier including artificial intelligence, and the evolution of content creation companies.
"The marketplace for content is growing," Discovery Communications CEO David Zaslav told media. "It's just a question of making sure your content is on all these platforms."
A less formal, but nonetheless persistent topic of conversation appeared to be the future of media giant Viacom as 93-year-old chairman Sumner Redstone's daughter Shari, who vice-chairman of the company, is presently engaged in litigation with the company's CEO Philippe Dauman.
Both are expected to attend the conference this week.
The guest list for the 34th annual conference was described by one media outlet as "the usual suspects".
In addition to Iger, Zuckerberg and Diller, other top-tier executives attending include Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Time Warner chairman Jeff Bewkes, DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, Warner Bros chairman Kevin Tsujihara and Harvey Weinstein, the co-founder of Miramax and chairman of The Weinstein Company.
Other guests include CBS CEO Les Moonves, PayPal chairman John Donahoe, Apple CEO Tim Cook, McDonald's CEO Steve Easterbrook and Hewlett Packard CEO Meg Whitman.
21st Century Fox executive co-chairman Rupert Murdoch is also attending, accompanied by his two sons, Lachlan, who is executive co-chairman of News Corp and 21st Century Fox, and James, who is CEO of 21st Century Fox and chairman of the British pay TV platform Sky.
The conference's closing remarks will be delivered by American billionaire Warren Buffett.
Though the Sun Valley resort operates year round, and is best known for its winter ski season, the media conference which borrows its name takes place in the northern summer.
The conference, which has been held annually since 1983, is hosted and funded by the investment company Allen & Company.
