[2] Keynote speakers have included Edward Heath, Henry Kissinger, Yngve Slyngstad, Liz Ann Sonders and Jeffrey D. Sachs.

These people include the former head of Statoil, Helge Lund, the former chief executive officer of Rieber&Søn, Frank Mohn and Asbjørn Reinkind who convened the 1983 conference.

The Norwegian Prime Minister, Kåre Willoch, said the conference was "a very positive step, I hope and believe that it will lead to constructive results."

Other speakers were the SAS Group chief executive officer, Jan Carlzon and the NHH professor Victor Norman.

In 1985, at a conference titled "Searching for New Opportunities", the speakers included the shipping magnates Tharald Brøvig and Jacob Stolt-Nielsen Jr., Stanford professor Harold Leavitt, the minister of industry, Jan P. Syse, former chief executive officer of Norsk Hydro, Torvild Aakvaag, factory owner Johan H. Andresen and the VD of Electrolux, Anders Scharp.

In 1989, at "Insight Outwards, Analysing a Changing Europe", speakers included GATT chief executive officer, Arthur Dunkel, managing director of the IMF Helene Ploix, EU-commissioner, Peter Sutherland and former American Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

Former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland argued for the necessity of restrictions on free market capitalism.

The DNO International executive, Torstein Hagen encouraged the Norwegian government to sell its stake in the petroleum industry to allow others to invest.

The speakers included the chief executive officer of Mercedes-Benz Helmut Werner, John Clarkson of Boston Consulting Group and former Minister of Foreign Affairs Thorvald Stoltenberg.

"[5] Guest speakers in 2001 included SEB chief executive officer Lars Thunell, Minister of Trade and businessman Grete Knudsen and Editor-in-Chief of the Financial Times, Martin Dickson.

In 2005, at the "Intelligent Organisation, the Future of Norway's Wealth Creation" conference, Karen Stephenson from the Harvard School of Design explained how The Pentagon had used her model to map al-Qaida's terrorist network.

Other speakers included former chief executive officer of Telenor Jon Fredrik Baksaas, former managing director of the World Economic Forum in Davos and current Minister of Foreign Affairs Børge Brende, Paul-Chr Rieber and Elin Ørjaseter.

[9] Among the guest speakers were Financial Times editor Martin Wolf, former president of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Björn Stigson, Lisa Mei Wang from the National Economics Research Institute in China, director of Goldman Sachs Gao Hua Securities, Xi Pei, William Cornog from KKR, managing director of Accenture Mark Spelman,[10] senior researcher at the PRIO Henrik Syse, owner of Ferd Johan H. Andresen, Minister of Foreign Affairs Espen Barth Eide, the vice president of E.ON, Jørgen Kildahl, Lucy Hockings from BBC, Geir Sviggum,[11] managing partner international of Wikborg Rein.