Page 61 - bne_November 2020_20201104

bne November 2020
Opinion 61
The billionaires' club, where the mega- wealthy go to meet each other
Ben Aris in Berlin
If you are rich enough to join, then you don't have to pay to be a member. That is the central idea behind what might be dubbed “the billionaires' club,” a series of conferences for family offices and ultra-high net worth individuals that has been running for a decade.
It's a lonely life being a billionaire. Seriously. There are
not many of them and it is not like they can all bump into each other in the pub. Last year there were a total of 2,825 billionaires in the world, according to market research firm Wealth-X, the highest number ever. But that is barely enough people to fill a small football stadium, or a large concert hall. If you have a billion dollars where do you go to hang out with your peers and swap gossip about how to deal with problems only the mega-wealthy have?
Ten years ago Katja Muelheim and Tobias Prestel almost stumbled across the format that has since attracted billionaires like bees to honey without really meaning to, if you listen to the way Prestel tells it.
“One of the problems of the super-rich is everyone wants to take a bite of their ear. There are queues of people trying to sell them something,” says Prestel. “They are actually quite lonely. So when they come to our events they find themselves in a crowd of peers, something that almost never happens to them, and they love it.”
The coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic has seen conferneces this summer cancelled, as the whole point of the event is to
be in a room with other mega-wealthy people, which can’t be replicated online. However, the German Family Office Forum in Wiesbaden took place in September and the “Family Office Forum Zurich,” is scehduled to happen in Zurich this December and the regulars are already booking their hotel suites.
The pair got their start when they organised an event for wealthy Germans in Wiesbaden in 2010. The core concept is that the Ultra High Net Worths (UHNW as they are known in the private banking business) can come to the event for free, which is already a fairly radical idea, but the clincher is that
The Dolder Grand hotel in Zurich
those people with something to sell – private bankers, fund managers, high powered lawyers and posh school reps – have to pay to attend. And that is only if they can get invited. And it is very, very hard to get invited if you are selling something.
"It's like a disco where there are more girls than boys," says Prestel. "We try to filter out the solution providers and provide a space where UHNW can feel comfortable amongst their peers.”
And that is the genius of the idea: the Prestel & Partner events business doesn't try to take any money at all from the UHNW, who are simply invited and given the best time the organisers
“It's like a disco where there are more girls than boys," says Prestel.
"We try to filter out the solution providers and provide a space where UHNW can feel comfortable amongst their peers”
can provide. The “solution providers,” as Prestel calls them, are hand-picked, carefully screened and banned from doing outright pitches. The billionaires are left free to mingle with their fellow billionaires and chat, compare notes and listen to the presentations if they are interested. After all, these people are super wealthy and do need and want most of the services that the various paying guests and speakers offer.
Prestel has adopted this low-watt approach from the beginning, and those that attended the Wiesbaden event enjoyed it so much they called and ask him to organise
a similar event in other cities so their friends could come. The Zurich event has been running for eight years now, and attracts a more international crowd in addition to the Swiss, as it is easier to get to.
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