Many of Wall Street’s biggest financial players are attending a conference this week at the Bellagio that never would have come about had it not been for a controversial remark President Barack Obama made last year at an Indiana high school.

Obama had been referring to bankers who accepted federal bailouts when he told the audience: “But, you know, you are not going to be able to give out these big bonuses until you pay taxpayers back. You can’t get corporate jets. You can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers’ dime.”

The comment enraged Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, who demanded an apology, and caused bailout recipient Wells Fargo Bank to cancel a meeting in town. But it also piqued the interest of executives at SkyBridge Capital, a global private equity and hedge-fund investment firm headquartered in New York. They saw a great opportunity to do business in Las Vegas by hosting a conference for their industry.

“We felt that it was not the right time to stay away from these types of gatherings, that it was important to find a way to manage ourselves out of this economic mess,” Victor Oviedo, a SkyBridge partner, said Thursday. “Vegas was a perfect place to do this, a city that built something from nothing in the middle of the desert.”

So when Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller came calling early last year to attract more Wall Street investment in Nevada, SkyBridge was more than happy to oblige. Miller and his father, former Gov. Bob Miller, introduced the company to gaming mogul Steve Wynn and legendary financier Michael Milken. Mix in a courtesy call the company made to an enthusiastic Goodman and SkyBridge came up with an idea.

Why not invite top hedge fund managers, bankers, pension fund executives and other Wall Street types interested in nontraditional forms of investing to share their thoughts in Las Vegas about macroeconomics, public policy, geopolitics and investment strategies?

This led to the first SkyBridge Alternatives Conference last May at Wynn Las Vegas with 400 participants. That gathering created so much buzz among alternative investment professionals that when SkyBridge announced its second conference — a three-day event that wraps up today — it had to cap attendance at 1,500. SkyBridge has penciled in its third conference for next May in Las Vegas, with the location yet to be determined.

Because hedge fund investors are known for running counter to popular opinion, Scott Prince, SkyBridge co-managing partner, said it made sense for his company to come to Las Vegas when the city began feeling abandoned by Wall Street.

“We got a lot of support from officials in Las Vegas to make this happen, so we feel this is a real partnership for us,” Prince said....

Read the full text of the article online at http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/may/21/street-hits-strip/ ">. 

It's rare that four of the most successful and well-known hedge-fund managers in the world are all on the same stage. But it's happening today at the SkyBridge Alternatives Conference in Las Vegas. James Dinan of York Capital Management, Ken Griffin of Citadel Investment Group, Marc Lasry of Avenue Capital, and Glenn Dubin of Highbridge Capital Management are talking about their current perspectives in a panel moderated by CNBC's David Faber.

2:38 p.m. PDT: Lasry talks about how competitive hedge-fund managers are, even joking that he called up Dinan to tell him he's beating him.

2:36 p.m. PDT: Dinan says nobody on the panel is doing it for the money. Bedlam nearly ensues.

2:30 p.m. PDT: As far as changes to carried interest tax rules, Griffin says... 

Read the full text of the article online at  ">http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100519-715521.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines&mg=com-wsj.

Due to the extraordinary response we have received, registration has reached maximum capacity. The last day to register was Friday, April 23, three weeks earlier than originally scheduled. Please contact Victor Oviedo for additional information. 

SkyBridge Capital, a leading global alternative investment firm, today announced that more than 1,000 invite-only participants have registered to attend the Second Annual SkyBridge Alternatives (SALT) Conference, May 19 to 21, 2010, in Las Vegas.

The Conference convenes public policy officials, capital allocators and managers to discuss the government’s role in the financial markets, allocation trends, the importance of risk management and the changing regulatory landscape. In its second year, registration has exceeded expectations and a strong majority of the confirmed attendees are end-investors including sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, endowments, foundations, family offices and private clients and treasury.

“We have secured a high-profile list of speakers and focused on bringing together institutional and other end-investors as well as today’s top asset allocators to deliver valuable perspectives and insights that participants can act on,” said Anthony Scaramucci, managing partner of SkyBridge Capital and a regular contributor to CNBC. “Coming off a year of the best performance for the hedge fund industry in the past decade, the timing to convene these keen investors and capital allocators with talented managers in one place could not be better.”

Keynote speakers at this year’s Conference will be President Bill Clinton; General Peter Pace, sixteenth chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (2005-2007); Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts; and Michael Milken, chairman of the Milken Institute. Other notable speakers include: Austan Goolsbee, staff director & chief economist of President Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board and member of the Council of Economic Advisers; Nouriel Roubini, economics professor and chairman of Roubini Global Economics; and Jeremy Siegel, the Russell E. Palmer Professor of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. Hedge fund managers James G. Dinan, York Capital Management, Glenn Dubin, Highbridge Capital Management and Marc Lasry, Avenue Capital Group will deliver a “View from the Top,” and a discussion of the “Institutional Investor Mindset” will be led by California State Controller John Chiang.

For more information regarding criteria to attend, registration or sponsorship opportunities, please visit the SALT website at www.saltconference.com.