A collective elite will come together this week at the Bilderberg conference, which this year takes in Turin, Italy. World leaders and masters of industry are due to gather from June 7 to 10, with geopolitics and technology dominating the agenda.

This year the delegates are concerned with Russia, 'post-truth' and the leadership in the US, with AI and quantum computing also on the schedule.

With no votes or official minutes allowed, the candid conversations that take place behind closed doors have fascinated people around the world for decades. But how did the group begin – and who is part of this year's delegation? Here is everything we know.

What is Bilderberg anyway?

One of the more outlandish theories about the group is that it is run by a race of humanoid creatures descended from lizards.

Others have claimed it controls the US Republican Party, the European Union, and wants to create a Fourth Reich.

The group itself claims to have been grown out of high-minded concerns that Europe and the US were not working together on "issues of common interest".

The first conference took place in Oosterbeek, Netherlands, in May 1954. Rumour has it that Polish politician-in-exile Jozef Retinger was keen to reduce growing anti-Americanism in Europe; he approached Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, who put the wheels in motion for an informal meeting of international minds.