Conference producers are coming up with some innovative solutions to deal with their revenue slump because of lockdown rules. People who would not ordinarily participate in a webinar are now doing so regularly. Conference producer Fund Business has gone further, launching a new fortnightly series of industry discussions: ‘Leading Minds’.
Fund Business, the leading producer of institutional investment administration, custody, trading and operational efficiency events for the past few years, holds its first web-based event in the ‘Leading Minds’ series next week, on June 10.
Laurence Jarvis, the Fund Business principal, said the first discussion would focus on operational resilience and how to keep an investment business running smoothly during gradually easing isolation, greater market volatility and increased trading volumes.
He said: “Attendees have the opportunity to listen to guest speakers, ask questions, participate in and view the results of industry polls; as well as being able to download supporting slide decks and info packs where used. Attending requires only a small investment of time – 45 minutes.”
The three speakers for the June 10 event are: Ross Gulliford, the head of investment operations at Challenger Ltd; Rob Scott, the global chief operating officer at First Sentier Investors; and, Linda Coffman, executive VP, reference data, for SmartStream Technologies.
Jarvis said that webinars were relatively inexpensive to produce and attendees appreciated useful content with no travel or accommodation costs. “You can also have more people in attendance, but there’s no substitute for a traditional conference or seminar,” he said. “People like to be able to catch up with friends and to meet other people. There may be a greater acceptance of webinars when this is over, but I don’t think physical events will be replaced.”
– G.B.
