The small ski-town of Sun Valley, Idaho, is bursting with media titans today as Herb Allen's (right) annual (and appropriately, if not-so-creatively named) media mogul retreat kicks off. Noted guests include Rupert Murdoch and son Lachlan, Warren Buffet, NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker, and Viacom CEO Phillipe Dauman. Silicon Valley royalty will also be making the trip, including Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Facebook's Marc Zuckerberg, and Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang.

But not all the movers and shakers of the media and tech universe will be enjoying the fresh mountain air, or brokering multi-million dollar deals over Pale Ales.

Cityfile reports that the looming recession has forced a tightening of the event's illustrious invite list, which this year included "fewer private equity titans ... since they're not nearly as useful now that they don't have the power to put billions into ill-advised media deals."

Also excluded from the cool kids' millionaire lunch-table were "a handful of players who were dropped from the invite list on account of their declining influence," including former eBay CEO Meg Whitman and Oxygen network founder Gerry Laybourne.