The PLSA claims its Investment Conference to be where CIOs, trustees, investment board members, pension managers, finance professionals and their advisers gain insight on the major trends and events affecting UK investors and markets. I can confirm that Edinburgh is where it brings the whole of the UK pensions investment chain together under one roof.
The event occurs on 11-13 MARCH at the EICC The Exchange, Edinburgh, EH3 8EE, Scotland. Previously I have stayed in Edinburgh University ( a cheaper option)and a brisk walk each morning , this year I will stay with a friend , another delegate and someone who is teaching me a lot.
In 2022 we did a session that included two brilliant women and a dull man! I go to this event to learn not to teach and I promise readers of this blog to report my views of what is said.
Of course some of what is said is baloney, corporate nonsense rather than influential and inspirational.
I first went in 1995 making this the 30th anniversary of that event. It has been in Glasgow, Birmingham, Brighton and a few places I forget. Back in 1995, I can’t remember listening to many women. This year I won’t be going to many sessions that aren’t dominated by good women. Although I do hope that they find some left-wing people for balance!
Back in 1995, getting an email off from the NAPF conference (as it was then) was pretty well impossible. Today we can blast our thoughts at each other using a variety of messaging devices.
The PLSA offers a means to make meetings with others, the trick is to find a place where people can find you and be sure to be there. I am not good at this, the excitement of meeting people informally in halls and in the massive corridors of the EICC makes time-keeping perilous!
And I could get stuck in the press room, though why press people choose to watch sessions on a TV defeats me. The most important thing about these sessions is the electricity of being in a live audience (or if you are chose- the speaker’s chair). If you think that watching TV show of a play is as good as watching a theatre performance then you have forgotten about immediacy and excitement.
No – I am looking forward to the event this year and my hope is that readers of this blog decide to go as well. We can collectively change things, swing the momentum away from wealth to retirement income , consider investment as long-term and growth intending, do away with the de-risking mantra.
Good on the PLSA for letting me be there. Thanks.
