The ultimate stall-shopping guide

Prepare yourself, planners, because as soon as you set foot through that exhibition hall entrance you are going to be bombarded with treats, novelty prizes and, if you’re lucky, crates of wine and golf bags.

Every year, fund managers, dealer groups and other industry players dish out pleasures of the palate and sporting arena in a bid to win planners’ hearts (and dollars). Such displays of corporate largesse have spawned a new phenomenon known as ‘stall-shopping’ — a focused, demanding and rewarding sport in its own right.

So for your stall-shopping convenience,Money Managementhas dissected a portion of the offerings into categories, so you know exactly which to visit.

Food:If you’re feeling a little peckish, the first stall you should visit isAMP Henderson. Not only will you be able to pick up some tasty treats, but you will be able to pick the brains of top Australian chefs Stephanie Alexander, Maggie Beer and cheese connoisseur Will Stud. These culinary notables are in the region for the AMP-sponsored food, wine and beer festival ‘Tasting Australia’.

TheChallengerstand has some sports snacks, or you can nip over to theMerrill Lynchstand for ice creams during afternoon tea breaks.

Wine:Now that you’ve eaten one or two hors d’ouveures, you will need to find some wine to cleanse your palate. Exhibitors are prohibited from serving alcohol at the stands, but that won’t stop them from giving out plenty of bottles to take away. If it’s vino you’re after, make sure you visit the stands run byZurich,Associated PlannersandMoney Management!

Money Managementhas dug deep into the coffers and has two bottles of Grange up for grabs.

At the Zurich stand, by completing a crossword, you’ll be in the running for a prize including bottles of wine, glasses, corkscrews and other related paraphernalia.

Enter the competition at dealer group Associated Planners’ stand and you could win half a dozen bottles of Peter Lehmann Stonewell 98 Shiraz. But there can only be one winner, so for the rest of you the consolation prize is an equally nifty packet of ‘invest-mints’.

Games:Delegates may rememberPerpetual’s trading game from last year’s convention, and those who don’t will have another chance to play this year. The trading game is a competition that runs throughout the conference in which planners are allocated portfolios that they adjust accordingly as conditions change within the game. Sound a bit too much like work? The prize is a travel voucher, which will allow you to put your feet up in one of your city’s luxury hotels as a reward.

Meanwhile, if you visit the Advance Bank stall, you can test your knowledge in an interactive ‘financial whiz quiz’. The quiz, which is fast paced and presented via a touch screen desktop system, can be played by one or two players at a time. Two plasma screens will list the top 20 scorers over the two days, and the two top scoring planners will each win a Sony Playstation (PS2), as well as the PS2 game SOCOM.

Golf:If the kind of game you prefer involves 18 holes, then it’s theAssirtstand you should be heading to. Assirt’s putting competition will give those dab hands at the short game the chance to win a golf bag designed for Greg Norman’s PGA tour of Australia.

Golf lovers should also mosey over to the Challenger Financial Services Group stand, where three planners will win ‘a golfer’s dream’. Answering a questionnaire will put you in the running to be chauffeured by limousine to the airport and flown by helicopter to the Hunter Valley for a round of golf at a private, Greg Norman-designed Elliston golf course.

Sailing:Australian Skandiais sponsoring the accordingly named ‘Skandia’ yacht in the Sydney to Hobart race this year, and the state-of-the-art 98-footer — the largest maxi in the fleet — is one of the favourites to win. The winner of Australian Skandia’s competition will be flown to and accommodated in Melbourne, where they will take a seat with the ‘Skandia’ crew in races during Geelong sailing week.

Sports TV:For those planners who would prefer to sit back and watch the action unfold on TV, Challenger has catered for you too. The Challenger team’s favourite sporting moments from the last 25 years will be playing on a big screen, with two live sports channels playing simultaneously. Meanwhile, at the Merrill Lynch Investment Managers stand you can also catch a TV compilation of funny sporting bloopers.

Looking to Relax:If you need a place to rest your weary feet and grab a free espresso pick-me-up, theBTstall is the place to be. BT has put on a ‘relaxed, casual seating area’ for delegates to ‘come in for a chat’. However, if you put your feet up on the coffee table and catch a few zzzs while you’re there, you could probably get away with it.

General Paraphernalia:Go on, grab a bag or two, it’s a hassle to carry but the kids will love you for it. The trick here is to walk around looking like you might be in the market to change dealer groups or service providers, and then just wait for the goodies to roll in.

Anyone with children will know the stage production of Disney’sThe Lion Kingis about to take over Australia, so rather than paying top dollars for Simba toys for your kids, head over to theINGstall and get one free! ING will be giving away some cute fluffy lions, as well as baseball caps. It’ll also be playing those Billy Connelly TV commercials on loop, just in case you hadn’t seen them.

Hangover Cures:All this stall-shopping is bound to make you thirsty, and as usual, Merrill Lynch will host the conference ‘after party’ — this year at the Planet Hotel. It is expected there will be some sore heads on Thursday morning, so Merrill Lynch will also be hosting a recovery breakfast at its stall at morning tea time. From 10.45am onwards there will be egg and bacon rolls and juices served, and no doubt a few stories exchanged as well...

We mean business:Credit Suisse Asset Managementis sponsoring ‘The Meeting Place’ — an area where speakers congregate for delegates to pick their brains during the conference. All the speakers will be there, so if Lenny Loudmouth from Rival Planning Firm Ltd uses up all your question time promoting his own business, you can find them there later. If you’re allergic to gimmicks and giveaways and need a pure business hit, try theInvesco,Ipac, Macquarie andMorningstarstands.

Fortune telling:NoFPAconvention would be complete without at least one fortune teller, so the Integratec stall is sure to be a crowd pleaser.

With preparations for Financial Services Reform coming to fruition and the upcoming relocation of the Sydney office, there are lots of positive things happening for the group in the near future. So it thought it would give delegates a glimpse into their own future. Margaret, the clairvoyant, has 40 years experience in fortune telling, but then again, industry players have spent around that long being duped by forecasts of future earnings, so it will be interesting to see who’s on the right track.