FPA convention 2001 - a decade in the making

This year’s annual Financial Planning Association’s (FPA) National Convention marks its 10th consecutive year as the premier event for the financial planning industry.

To be held at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre from November 22 to 24, the convention’s organising committee has been working tirelessly over the past 18 months to deliver something extra special to celebrate its landmark decade.

“There’s going to be a few surprises, and the closing ceremony is going to be a doozey,” according to IntegraTec general manager of sales and marketing and this year’s FPA convention committee chair, Nina Hope.

“And being the 10th conference, we’re giving more in terms of pre-conference events and partners being able to attend. There will be cake.”

Hope says this year’s conference topics represent a culmination of ideas from the FPA education committee and feedback from members in last year’s post conference survey.

“The feedback was pretty positive, with the number one driver being education and number two listed as networking,” Hope says.

According to Hope, conference organisers have responded to the feedback, and as a result, this year’s conference will feature a networking cafŽ as well as an Internet cafŽ for the first time, so delegates feel they are still in touch with the outside world, even though they are in convention mode.

Speakers at this year’s convention will cover technical, practice management, portfolio and marketing, and communication topics. Business and finance commentator, David Koch, will act as the convention’s master of ceremonies.

Independent delegate for the NSW Constitutional Convention, Jason Yat-Sen Li, will open the convention plenary sessions with a presentation on the new face of Australia. Following him is science communicator, Dr Stephen Juan, who will look at the issue of the future human and living forever. Tony Christiansen will give a presentation titled ‘Its’ your attitude that determines your altitude in life’, and co-founders of New York’s MoneyLove Relationship Counselling, Charles Petersen III and Betsy Kline Petersen will explore the way men and women invest and spend differently.

Day two will kick off with Deutsche Asset Management’s global chief economist Steven Bell presenting a perspective on global markets, and 1996 Nobel Peace prize-winner and East Timor independence and human rights activist, Dr Jose Ramos-Horta will conclude the day with a discussion on the conference theme, ‘Building Bridges — Creating Opportunity’.

While the line-up of speakers for this year’s concurrent sessions includes the expected variety in both topics and speakers, one of new features includes a significant lifestyle component.

Sessions such as ‘Five ways to a healthy life’ and ‘Brain software boost business tenfold’, break up some of the more heavier sessions covering the Financial Services Reform Act, tax changes and compliance issues.

“Members asked for lifestyle sessions and it’s about getting a balance in life,” Hope says.

Many of the fund managers provide excellent up-to-date sessions all year on the hot issues, according to Hope, so while it is still important for the conference to cover these topics, it does allow room for something a little different.

To date, the response to the conference has been good. However, Hope says it has definitely been impacted by the events of September 11.

“The number of speakers and delegates is down on last year. We thought we’d get around 3,000 just with the line up and being in Brisbane,” Hope says.

The obvious absentees from this year’s conference are the US delegates, however, delegates from countries such as Korea and New Zealand are still coming.

Having attended nine out of the past 10 conferences, Hope says the format of the conference has not changed too much over the years. She says the growth area has been in tailoring the conference to the specific needs of the delegates.