Three Sessions at the 2024 Milken Global Conference that Garnered Mile-Long Lines – and What They Say About Investor Sentiment

Last week, the Milken Institute’s 27^th annual Global Conference took place at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles, with a theme of ‘Shaping a Shared Future.’ Prosek supported clients on-the-ground with speaking opportunities, private events, meetings, and media interviews, and in supporting our team, I had the opportunity to attend some of the conference’s most exciting sessions.

A few of the panels that garnered the most attendance might surprise you – and they tell a broader story about what investors are most interested in seeking advice to navigate.

Day 1: Common Sense from Uncommon Investors

Moderated by Chairman of the Milken Institute Michael Milken himself, this was the first Day 1 session that had attendees bumping elbows to get through the door. The line wrapped around the entirety of the Beverly Hilton lobby, past the café, gift shop and other session entrances. Held in the International Ballroom, many attendees were (not happily!) turned away once the room reached capacity.

Featuring a discussion on navigating credit cycles, panelists included Canyon Partners’ Joshua Friedman, Pacific Investment Management Company’s Dan Ivascyn, GoldenTree Asset Management’s Steven Tananbaum, Guggenheim Partners’ Anne Walsh, and Davidson Kempner’s Tony Yoseloff.

There were other credit-focused sessions held throughout day one too – none of which garnered a mile-long line.

But for this panel, attendees were eager to hear from veteran financiers on how they are (and aren’t) shifting their playbooks to uncover compelling opportunities.

“The level of fiscal deficit spending in the US is really quite unprecedented relative to history, especially when you think about the US being at a sub-4% unemployment rate,” said Anne Walsh. “We are seeing the government spending literally at a level that you wouldn’t see outside of world wars.”

The room was full through the very end. Watch the session here.

Day 1: A Conversation with Elon Musk

Elon’s name was practically bouncing off the walls of the Hilton leading up to his arrival. It was no surprise that his session would be one of the most highly coveted and well-attended of the week.

His fireside chat undoubtedly garnered the most media attention of any session at the conference, as Axios, Fortune and Business Insider wrote extensively on his commentary on SpaceX using “basically no AI,” and what keeps him up at night: “anything that’s a civilizational risk,” including plummeting birth rates and “anything that undermines the foundations of democracy in America or elsewhere.”

Onstage, Michael Milken joked at the start of the session that his discussion with Elon was supposed to be titled, “How to save the human race…(and other light topics).” He showcased footage from Elon’s very first time speaking at the Milken Global Conference eleven years ago, and they reflected on the evolution of the topics that were top-of-mind for him back then, including space exploration, sustainable energy, and technological advancement.

As the discussion moved toward artificial intelligence, Elon said, “I do think it’s very important that we build the AI in a way that is beneficial to humanity…The AI should not be taught to lie, it should not be taught to say things that are not true. Even if those things are politically incorrect, it should still say what it believes to be true.”

Watch their full discussion here.

Day 2: Global Real Estate 

There were 11 sessions during the 2:30pm time slot on day two of the event – amidst panels on climate, private markets, asset management, and AI’s ethical frontier, real estate took the cake as attendees again lined up across the Hilton lobby to secure their seat in the International Ballroom.

Bloomberg’s Erik Schatzker moderated a discussion featuring real estate titans Kathleen McCarthy, Global Co-Head of Real Estate at Blackstone; Al Rabil, CEO of Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors; David Steinbach, Global CIO of Hines; and Barry Sternlicht, CEO of Starwood Capital Group – collectively, nearly $600B in real estate equity sat onstage.

“Real estate has been a painful place,” is how Schatzker opened the discussion. The panelists discussed how they’ve been navigating the post-pandemic impacts on the sector, from interest rates and vacancies. to geopolitics.

“From our perspective, we are bottoming,” said Kathleen McCarthy. “It’s hard to ever know if you’ve actually hit the bottom until you’re past it…It feels to us that there’s bad news coming, but it’s mostly the aftermath of the shipwreck that already happened.”

Panelists discussed how Fed policy will continue to affect the sector, how they’re thinking about balancing credit and equity, and what it might take for the market to gain back its confidence after a prolonged underperformance of office assets.

Watch the panel recording here.