It may be expensive, it may be time-consuming and it may be awash with alcohol, but the PLSA investment conference at the end of February is a must-do – do

On the buy-side are the paying members of the PLSA who run and manage the pension funds that millions benefit from.

On the sell-side are those who are looking to meet their clients and meet new clients.

There will also be a host of speakers and riff-raff like me , making sure that this is way more than a trade-show.

It’s also a chance to visit Edenborough and – as it happens over a leap year, you could argue you are not losing time at all – just spending the extra-time the calendar gives us.

Investment conference this year

So what are my agenda high-lights this year?

Highlights on day one (Tuesday 27th) are a keynote from Paul Johnson who can tell us how the IFS’ DIY pension commission is coming on, and what could be a knockabout session featuring Dan and Laura on the uncertainty of the UK economy and how we invest in it.

These sessions are as good as their chairs and this one doesn’t have one, so I’m hoping we get a free for all with plenty of disagreement. Sessions like this make or break conferences – they set the tone.

Highlights on day two (Wednesday 28th)

This is the full on full day where investment experts roll out their big ideas and plenty of those ideas I know nothing about – so it will be a day of learning.

The most intriguing session kicks the day off and will be missed by a good proportion of the previous night’s revellers

The final highlight for me is on day three and is again first up at 9am

I’m hoping for more than platitudes here, D&I is a good thing – we all know it, but there are two meanings of “woke” and I hope that this will be a debate rather than a love-in.

The conference ends with Lynda Gratton talking about everything – a challenge  but it means we leave for home with questions beating around the brain.

Why I’m going

I started going to PLSA conferences in 1995 , so this will be my 30th year. It is quite an achievement for the NAPF and now the PLSA to keep interest in physical going through the various financial crisis’ , pandemics and most recently the post Covid cost of living crisis.

I’d like to think that the conferences are as resilient as we are but they need energy as well as attendance.

The PLSA clearly like me coming and I love to meet old and new colleagues over the three days and two nights. I have been critical and warm to the events in equal measure but I know that if the PLSA conferences weren’t there, we would lose something important that allows us to call ourselves an industry.

I’m going because at 62 , I feel like I felt at Glasgow in 1995, that I really know nothing about pensions.