More than 100 of the world's most powerful people are at the former manor house near London for a secretive annual gathering that has attained legendary status in the eyes of anti-capitalist protesters and conspiracy theorists.
The guest list for the Bilderberg meeting includes Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde and former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
British Prime Minister David Cameron is due to drop by today.
The Bilderberg Group was set up in 1954 to support military and economic co-operation between Europe and North America during the Cold War.
More From This Section
What happens at Bilderberg, stays at Bilderberg. There is no media access and the public is kept away by a large security operation. The group says that "there is no detailed agenda, no resolutions are proposed, no votes are taken, and no policy statements are issued."
But in a move toward slightly more openness, the group now has a website, which lists attendees and key topics for discussion, including the economy, US foreign policy, "cyber warfare and the proliferation of asymmetric threats" and "major trends in medical research."
Publication of these details has done little to ease the concerns of protesters, who sense a shadowy global elite at work in the secretive meeting.