GORDON BROWN will arrive at tomorrow’s Zeitgeist event hoping that some of Google’s magic will rub off on him, just as it did on Conservative leader David Cameron.

The prime minister is the opening speaker at the internet giant’s third annual conference at The Grove hotel complex in Chandler’s Cross, Hertfordshire.

What began as a simple gathering for Google’s advertising partners has mushroomed into an event to see and be seen at for politicians and business leaders professing to be in tune with the digital age.

The Google phenomenon has ensured that Zeitgeist has become much more than a customer conference.

For those who attend, it is a reminder of Google’s limitless ambition. As chief executive Eric Schmidt put it: “Zeitgeist is not about Google, but the world.”

The 350 hand-picked delegates can expect big ideas and blue-sky thinking.

On the platform will be Queen Rania of Jordan, mobile-phone entrepreneur Mo Ibrahim and Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, the former prime minister of Norway and a climate-change advocate. Also speaking is Chad Hurley, co-founder of the video website YouTube, which is owned by Google.

The company is keen to burnish its green credentials. It has vowed to make its giant computer servers carbon neutral and is hiring scientists to hunt for ways of making renewable energy as cheap to produce as coal.

The subject of advertising may also be raised. Google has not been immune from concerns over a downturn in spending. Its shares are 22% below their November peak, although the business still has a market value of £93 billion.

Previous Zeitgeist delegates include foreign secretary David Miliband and Sir Martin Sorrell, the chief executive of WPP.

Cameron has attended twice: two years ago in Britain and last year in California. His close association has made him appear more in touch than Brown with new technologies, using a webcam to broadcast from his breakfast table.

The links run deep: Cameron was a special adviser to Michael Howard alongside Rachel Whetstone, Google’s European communications director. Whetstone is godmother to his eldest son.

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