Dawn Of The Mogul – Sun Valley 2010 – Day 2

Sun Valley Conference 2010

Day 1 — Day 2 — Day 3 — Day 4

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Day 2:

Good morning… or as they say in Sun Valley “Another Beauty” – in that certain rich hippie way.  The first night of the four day drunk fest is over and I’m not feeling too bad considering how much I drank last night.

The dinner was fine.  Who knew moose would work so well in a stew?  The flan was also not too bad.  I was seated between Mark Zuckerberg and Lady Gaga (Mogul?  Really?).

That Gaga guy was fine but Mark Zuckerberg was a pain in my ass.  I tried to change seats but no one would do it.

It seems Zuckerberg was pissed off that some blogger in my enormous company made some crack that “Facebook Is Worthless”.  I have thousands of employees.  I can’t be bothered about one freakin’ blogger.  What a punk ass dope!

The drinking went well into the night.  Rupert Murdoch, Terry Semel and I held court in Herb’s Grotto near the Piranha Tank.  As I said yesterday, bartender Bin Tran makes the best freakin’ dirty martinis I’ve ever had.  I suck ’em down like water.

Unfortunately, the night had to end and this morning began at 5:00 a.m. with the ridiculous “Dawn of the Mogul” choral arrangement / wake up call (written by Michael Eisner years ago) played over loud speakers to urge us all to:

“Rise, Rise, Rise with the Sun.
We are Moguls.
The World We Run… etc. etc.”

This annoying, horrible song repeats and repeats until we all gather out in the Common Area (a name that seriously needs to be changed.  We are far from “common”.  I have suggested “Manka Plaza” or “Khan Kourt”).

After we assembled for calisthenics led by Bob Iger (a non-starter for me and almost all of the Tech CEOs), “The Call of the Moguls” fanfare is played while the Allen & Co. flag is raised up the flagpole.

We then recite “The Pledge of the Mogul” (which I will not repeat – but involves words like “integrity”, “philanthropy” and “quality”).  All bullshit if you ask me.  But there were a few guys (Jeffrey Katzenberg and Harvey Weinstein to name a couple) who were reciting it as though they were brainwashed North Korean school children.  They were in tears as they pledged to be the best mogul they could be.

[As a side note, some of us are meeting later in the day to discuss whether Harvey Weinstein can still be considered a mogul.  It may be time to ceremonially strip him of this title.  We’ll have to see.]

After an awkward group embrace, we were sent our own way by Herb Allen for bike riding, tennis or our own private “thinking time” by the Duck Pond.

We then gathered in the “Great Hall of the Moguls” for a breakfast of waffles and our choice of sausage made from wild game that was recently shot on a local hunting farm.  Antelope seems to be favorite among media moguls.  The tech moguls go right for the bacon made from wild boar.

So that’s been my morning.  I passed on going to several little panel groups and am about to have my first cocktail.

Jeff Zucker and Peter Chernin are sneaking out of the “Women In Technology” panel and joining me to watch the Spain / Germany World Cup match.

Hopefully, something interesting is planned for tonight.  I’m so unbelievably bored.

Khan Manka, Jr. – Chairman & CEO – Manka Bros. Studios – The World’s Largest Media Company