We run a series of different events to communicate the latest news and developments to do with platforms. Our aim is to help delegates and clients develop strategies and products, as well as learn about all the different providers and options to them. If you have a general query regarding any of our events please contact Chloe King
Current Events
12 Months and Counting – 24th January 2012
The aim of this session is for senior directors of nationals, networks and large regional IFAs to engage with some senior industry experts on the challenges the industry face in the next 12 months.
What is there still left to do, where should the focus be and can adviser firms be confident on December 31st 2012 as they enter the new world in 2013? The idea is that we give adviser businesses the chance to take half a day to table their most pressing concerns, learn from each other and get immediate input, help and suggestions from a panel of experts.
The agenda will be determined by the delegates prior to the event. The event is discursive – we want to avoid “death by PowerPoint” and get the industry experts in front of leading adviser business heads to take the most difficult questions as posed by our delegates. This event is for a maximum of 30 delegates, some of which we have personally invited, there are however, a couple of places left. For more information on this event please contact Emma Napier
Money Marketing Investment Alliance – 7th February 2012
Emma Napier will be speaking at the Money Marketing Investment Alliance on Tuesday 7th February 2012 at the Grange St Paul’s Hotel in London.
The one-day conference will bring together advisers, fund managers and industry experts to address the key issues concerning regulation and investing in the current economic climate.
Click here for more information on the event.
Discretionary Management – dangerous Multi-Manager with lipstick on? – March 2012
From risk profiling to investment solution – what is best practice, what do the FSA expect, what role should platforms play and what is the optimum investment solution? Multi-manager, model portfolio or discretionary management? Clumsy tripartite agreements or a marriage made in heaven?
We invite 50 senior directors ranging from life companies, platforms, fund managers, wealth management firms and large IFAs to hear the views of some leading industry experts with their view of the investment opportunities and hazards the road ahead is facing.
For more details please contact Freddie Findlater
Image: jscreationzs / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Networking Seminar for Women - Easter chicks! - date TBC
Following successful events in 2010 and 2011, The Platforum will be holding another 'chicks' event this Easter. These events are for women working in the platform and investments industry to provide them with the opportunity to hear from senior female directors, to learn about the platform and investments industry and, most importantly, to make contacts and connections. More details coming soon.
Past Events
Networking Seminar for Women - Thursday 8th December 2011
“Time and time again we attend meetings, conferences and seminars where there are only a handful of women in the room. This is more true the more senior the attendees. The issue can become self-perpetuating, as it becomes difficult for women to build a network of peers at different companies.”
Following two successful events in 2009 and 2010, The Platforum held a seminar for women working in the platform and investments industry to provide them with the opportunity to hear from senior female directors, to learn about the platform and investments industry and, most importantly, to make contacts and connections.
This time, in the run-up to Christmas, we closed with champagne and some gifts and shopping!!
Click here for the seminar agenda
Platforum Digital Seminar – Thursday 17th November 2011
38 million customers are registered for online banking in the UK, one in five people have used some form of mobile banking and 69% of internet users have bought at least one financial services product online. Meanwhile, retail investment has been buffeted by the digital revolution without necessarily embracing it. Increasingly, the consumer expects to research and manage investments online and our sector doesn’t always meet their expectation.
The Platforum offers a step-program to redemption!
- Step 1: Recognise that there’s a problem – we’re all digital companies now!
- Step 2: Learn from other sectors about how to 'kick the analogue habit' and thrive in the digital world.
- Step 3: 'Addicted' to Google? Understand the nuts and bolts of digital marketing – know your PPC from your SEO and CPA!
- Step 4: Recognise a 'higher power' can give you strength: social media, mobile, video – how should we be thinking about the emerging digital opportunities?
- Step 5: Distil all of the above into a platform and retail financial services context, and learn to 'love your new life' in this digital age.
Click here for the seminar agenda.
The latest version of Adobe Reader is required to view the agenda. This can be downloaded free here
Image courtesy of Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Platforum Conference V - Thursday 13th October 2011
Our fifth annual conference took place at the Grand Connaught Rooms in Central London on Thursday 13th October 2011. Topics on the agenda included setting the scene for 2011 and beyond; the new channels and new ideas that affect the platform market; different platform journeys: platform, adviser and customer; and how to attract clients, service clients and keep them happy.
The conference during the day was then followed by evening drinks and canapes as well as live entertainment. For full details please view the agenda, and click here for a summary of how the day went.
The latest version of Adobe Reader is required to view the conference agenda. This can be downloaded free here
Platform Due Diligence Day
The Platforum's MD Holly Mackay was the Guest Speaker at this event being run by Capita Financial Software. The Platform Due Diligence Day brought together some of the best minds in the industry to help delegates take on today's challenges. It served to educate, inform, provoke discussion and debate and promote co-operation and development in the platform industry.
The event achieved this through a cutting edge series of keynote speeches from Axa, Aviva, Fidelity Funds Network and Royal London with the focus towards platform selection and due diligence. Panel discussions and Q&A sessions hosted by Capita Financial Software, worked as a platform for interaction.
The separate exhibition area brought all the largest platform providers in the industry together under the same roof, allowing an exclusive opportunity to discuss product, service, opportunities, and business support with their regional and national representatives.
In addition to platform operators, guest speaker Holy Mackay – Managing Director at The Platforum – hosted a keynote speech on the latest in platform regulation, trends and providers.
For more detail on this event, please click here
Seminars
We are aware there is a demand for smaller events, with specific senior delegates, to review a subject in more depth and rigour than mass conferences allow. In conjunction with a sponsor, our aim is to bring together the top execs in a specialised area both as speakers and delegates, to debate, discuss and learn more about select topics. Please contact us if you have a suggestion for a current, topical seminar of general interest or are interested in running a seminar with The Platforum.
Peripatetic platforms
“Platforms are on the move. They have sat predominantly in IFA channels for the last decade but are now expanding to the mass market to service direct customers and upstream, to service traditional private banking or wealth management customers. ”
- What do these customers want?
- How can we deliver this to them?
- Can the same platform service all of these sectors?
Discretionary Management Forum
The Platforum teamed up with threesixty and Raymond James to offer IFAs a half day seminar examining the practicalities of delivering discretionary investment management to clients. After a successful event in London in February, further events were added in Bristol, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Manchester and Gatwick.
22nd April 2010 - IOD South West, Bristol - Click here to view the agenda
19th May 2010 - The Royal Scots Club, Edinburgh - Click here to view the agenda
28th September 2010 - IOD, Birmingham - Click here to view the agenda
6th October 2010 - IOD, Manchester- Click here to view the agenda
20th October 2010 - Sofitel (Marcel Suite), London Gatwick - Click here to view the agenda
Employee benefits platforms
28 Jan 2010, Logica, Kings Place, London. Click here to see the full agenda.
Platforms moving into the employee benefit space - an over-engineered provider push or a modern must have for today’s employers?
The session was split into 2 principal sessions, addressing firstly what is required for the employee and employer and secondly, what building blocks are available to build this? Click here to view the white paper produced after the event.
Networking seminar for women working with fund platforms
5th November, Skandia (London Offices). Click here to see a pdf of the agenda.
Stochastic Modelling: Are we talking black swans or ugly ducklings?
2nd October, Henderson Global Investors. Click here to see a pdf of the agenda and also to view the white paper that was produced after the event for mass circulation.
Conferences
- Platforum Conference V - October 2010 View the conference agenda
- Platforum Conference IV - October 2010
- Platforum III – May 2009
- Platforum II – October 2008
- Platforum I – Feb 2008
