DESPITE the absence of top officials from the central government, the Forbes Global CEO Conference, being staged in Shanghai this week, is still a high-level gathering.

This status is partly indicated by the event's high attendance fee: participants are expected to pay US$5,000 each for admittance if they fail to register before the July 16 discount deadline (entitling them to pay a "mere" US$3,995).

About 400 CEOs or top corporate executives, including 270 from overseas, have coughed up the money to attend the event.

That means Forbes, the US publishing and media giant, will reap US$2 million in attendance fees for organizing the three-day event.

On September 12, the Oriental Morning Post, a local Chinese-language newspaper, tested the conference registration deadline, to check on the organizers' strictness in screening would-be participants.

Several minutes after sending the fake application from a made-up company and its non-existent CEO to the event's corporate registration staff in Singapore, the paper received a confirmation, accompanied by only one question: would the money be paid by credit card or wire transfer?

In addition to the substantial earnings from the attendance fees, Forbes also acquired lavish sponsorship from a number of big-name companies and organizations such as Shimao, HP and HSBC.

BMW, the German luxury car maker, provided 70 cars, including several of its top-end 760i series, to serve as the event's official vehicles.

However, some watchers say such direct earings from organizing the event is only a very small part of Forbes' aim; the real target is to raise local public awareness of Forbes and thus lay a solid foundation for the company's future business expansion plans.

The strategy resembles that of Forbes' long-time rival, Fortune, which in 1999 hosted a successful international forum in Shanghai. This enabled more Chinese to get to know the US magazine and its list of the world's top 500 biggest companies (ranked in revenue terms).

If that is really what Forbes expects, it seems to be on track, receiving considerable attention from the media.

More than 350 journalists from over 120 foreign and domestic media organizations showed up at the Jinmao Tower, the event's venue, to cover this conference.

However, the event's status led organizers to decide to shut journalists out of all of the conference' sessions - they have to stay in a designated room to watch the money talk on video. The business moguls seemed more than happy to avoid direct contact with the media.