You don’t often get 3,500 chief executives together. But when you do, how can you keep them busy?

That’s the question for the organizers of the Young Presidents Organization’s annual conference this week at the Nokia Theatre in downtown Los Angeles.

The answer: bring in lots of star power and provide the attendees with a selection of how-to sessions that they’ll want to attend.

The star power: billionaire biotech entrepreneur Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, famed movie director James Cameron and long-distance swimmer Diane Nyad, among others.

But it’s the two days of networking sessions that set this event apart.

That’s when chief executives, presidents and managing directors of more than 3,000 companies will share ideas among themselves, according to Jeffrey Rosenthal, chief executive of Rose Investments in Los Angeles and host city chairman for the conference.

And the discussion won’t be limited to how they run their companies, topics including how to balance work with family and how to get children into top-notch international schools are expected to come up.

“We want this to be the most successful networking event for executives, with the focus on the executive as a complete person,” Rosenthal said.

YPO membership is restricted to chief executives and other top-level executives of companies with significant revenue and employee counts.

Maximum age for joining is 45; members can later graduate to the World Presidents’ Organization for executives over 50.

Members of the organization come from 125 countries.

The L.A. area is YPO’s biggest regional chapter and the region’s ethnic diversity was a factor in selecting the city as the host of this year’s conference.

“With more than 220 languages spoken here in Los Angeles, our organization’s global reach is nowhere better represented than here,” Rosenthal said.

– Howard Fine