The conference ended yesterday, but there's more Milken Conference goodness coming soon. We still have some videos to get up and several of the panels to finish blogging about; however, today has been travel day for most of the team. Expect more good Milken content soon...

While you wait, why not head over and check out our newest addition: Blogging Stocks.

One thing is common to almost every conference I've ever attended, no matter what the topic: there is lots of stuff being given away. Here at Milken there are bags, hats, tons of food, chocolate, notebooks, pens, and even some gadgets. Check out this cellphone charger that BNP Paribas is giving away. It takes a single AA battery and turns that into valuable juice for your failing cellphone battery. In this picture you can see it feeding my Cingular 8125 with a bit of that sweet sweet energy. Only downside to this piece of swag: of the multiple adapters included, there wasn't one for the Treo (which left one of our bloggers, Randall Bennett, very disappointed).

U.S. Overview: Will the Economy Stay on Top?
Speakers:
Thomas Donohue, President and CEO, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Director, Maurice R. Greenberg Center, Geoeconomic Studies and Paul A. Volcker Chair in International Economics, Council on Foreign Relations; former Director, Congressional Budget Office
Jeffrey Kindler, Vice Chairman, General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer, Pfizer Inc.
Andrew Stern, President, Service Employees International Union

Moderator:
Maria Bartiromo, Managing Editor, "The Wall Street Journal Report," Anchor, CNBC


(Left to right: Thomas Donohue, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Jeffrey Kindler, Andrew Stern, and Maria Bartiromo)

This was a very interesting discussion on the future of the U.S. economy in a global context, focusing on what problems the U.S. has to overcome now and in the coming years. Maria Bartiromo began the session by asking the panelists what were their top worries about the U.S. economy?

Note: The following notes were taken live during the session and are not meant to be considered direct quotations of the discussion...

We just received a comment on my previous post from another blogger who is here at Milken covering the event: George Siemens, who is blogging over at elearnspace. George asks: "Quick question - is this blog done by Milken Institute members/conference organizers? or are you providing informal coverage as participants?"

The short answer is we're covering everything we can about Milken. We're with Weblogs, Inc. and AOL, (which is an underwriter of the event) and we're here covering as many aspects of the conference as we can manage. You'll see us floating around the conference this whole week, so if you are here or happen to be one of the panelists look for us and maybe we'll put you up on the blog. Right now, I'm sitting in the hotel cafe with Jason Calacanis, Dakota Smith, Deidre Woollard, and Sarah J. Gim discussing our strategy, as team members Alexia Prichard and Randall Bennett are off at a few of the panels.

If you are at Milken and blogging the event, like George Siemens, for your own blog, let us know in the comments and I'll add you to this post.

When you walk in to the Beverly Hilton (where they host the Golden Globes!), Ruby greets you at the door and welcomes you to the Milken Conference.

More pictures after the jump...

We've arrived at the Milken Conference, and spotted a few key players like former U.S. Senator and presidential candidate, Gary Hart, who we may have the good fortune of interviewing later in the conference and who is speaking at the Economics & Terrorism panel, which our own Dakota Smith will be covering later today. We're just getting our bearings, but in the meantime, check out our pictures from the AOL Cyber Pavilion after the jump.

The 2006 Milken Institute Global Conference kicks off today with a few panels, and it looks like what will follow will be a busy three day event, filled with a diverse group of people discussing important topics. Make sure you check out all the details over at the Milken Institute's site and stay tuned here at Blogging Milken, where we'll be checking in with posts, pictures, and even some videos from the conference.