"If the Bilderberg Group is not a conspiracy of some sort, it is conducted in such a way as to give a remarkably good imitation of one" (C. Gordon Tether, London's "Financial Times", 1975) The meetings of the Bilderberg Group, a shadowy melee of the West's leading political and business leaders, military and media strategists and other unnamed but purportedly influential figures have remained one of the world's best kept secrets since the "Group" met for the first time in 1954 at the exclusive Oosterbeek Hotel de Bilderberg in the Netherlands. Initiated by Polish emigree Joseph Hieronim Retinger (1888-1960), with the active support of Dutch Prince Bernhard (1911 - 2004) the meeting was convened to counter fears of a loss of American influence in Western Europe during the rapidly intensifying Cold War. For the next five days transmediale.08 has invited an equally eminent group of artists, activists and researchers to its own counter-conspiratorial Bilderberg Salon. Each daily session, presented and chaired by a special guest host, is a privileged backroom for strategic digital culture that will become the festival's thematic arena for an open exchange and debate into contemporary, conceptual and highly conspiratorial artistic practice.