Bilderberg Meeting

From April 9 to April 12, 2026, the 72nd Bilderberg Conference was held at the Salamander Washington DC Hotel in Washington, D.C., United States. With 128 participants from 23 countries, the agenda covered critical issues including AI, Arctic security, China, digital finance, energy diversification, global trade, the Middle East, Russia, transatlantic defence‑industrial relations, Ukraine, and future warfare—demonstrating the group’s engagement with multifaceted global challenges.

The 71st Bilderberg Conference took place from June 12 to June 15, 2025, at the Grand Hôtel in Stockholm, Sweden. Gathering around 121 participants from 23 countries, the meeting addressed topics such as transatlantic relations, Europe, the US economy, Ukraine, authoritarianism, AI, energy geopolitics, and migration, reflecting the breadth of current international concerns.

The 70th edition of the Bilderberg Meeting convened from May 30 to June 2, 2024, in Madrid, Spain. The venue hosted a gathering of approximately 131 participants from across Europe and North America, continuing the rotation between continents and focusing on contemporary global challenges, reaffirming the group’s role as a private, high‑level forum for policy dialogue.

The 68th Bilderberg Conference resumed in person from June 2 to June 5, 2022, at the Mandarin Oriental (now Salamander Washington DC Hotel) in Washington, D.C., United States. This gathering marked the return of the annual meetings after the pandemic‑induced hiatus, reaffirming the resilience of the informal international dialogue format under the Chatham House Rule in the face of global crises.

The Bilderberg Meetings scheduled for 2020 and 2021 were cancelled due to the global COVID‑19 pandemic and associated travel and gathering restrictions. This unprecedented halt in the annual gatherings highlighted the disruption of international elite dialogue during global public health emergencies, breaking the decades‑long tradition of uninterrupted meetings since 1954.

In May 2009, the Bilderberg Meeting convened in Vouliagmeni, near Athens, Greece, during the early stages of the Greek debt crisis. High‑level attendees included Greek finance and foreign ministers, the governor of the Bank of Greece, and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The meeting reportedly addressed the mounting financial instability in southern Europe, highlighting the role of the Bilderberg forum in informal economic diplomacy during times of regional crisis.

The 1976 Bilderberg Meeting, planned for April in Hot Springs, Virginia, United States, was cancelled following revelations of the Lockheed scandal. The scandal involved bribery by Lockheed Corporation of officials in several countries, and implicated Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, who chaired the Bilderberg Steering Committee. The cancellation marked the only disruption prior to the pandemic-era cancellations, underscoring the sensitivity of Bilderberg’s leadership to ethics crises.

The second annual Bilderberg Meeting convened from March 18 to March 20, 1955, at L'Hôtellerie du Bas‑Bréau in Barbizon, France. The conference continued its mission of trans‑Atlantic cooperation, with discussions on nationalism and neutralism, the Middle East, European defence policy, and broader Western alliance strategies. The early expansion of topics signaled the commitment to address evolving geopolitical challenges collectively.

The inaugural Bilderberg Meeting took place from May 29 to May 31, 1954, at the Hotel de Bilderberg in Oosterbeek, Netherlands. Conceived by Polish political advisor Józef Retinger, supported by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands and American banker David Rockefeller, the gathering aimed to foster understanding between Western European nations and the United States during the early Cold War. Participants discussed topics such as attitudes toward communism, overseas territories, economic policies, and European integration and defense cooperation, setting the foundation for future annual meetings under the Chatham House Rule.

Following the success of the first 1954 meeting, a permanent Steering Committee was established, with Józef Retinger appointed as its secretary and Prince Bernhard serving as president until 2004. This institutional framework ensured continuity, selection of annual participants and agenda‑setting, laying the organizational foundation for the long‑term persistence of the Bilderberg Meetings.