Now THAT’S a financial conference!
If you are reading this on the 19th, I may be still asleep. I am writing this on my flight home, scheduled to land at midnight Wednesday; I was alcohol-free all week (ok, one Mexican lager Tuesday afternoon at my RWM-crew pool swim after the Animal Spirits Live!), and while I feel pretty good, its been a long week.
When we did the first FuturePpoof in 2022, there was plenty of skepticism: Sponsors were cautious, the media was tentative, even members of my team had no idea what this would look like — nobody really was sure what to make of it. Once people arrived on the beach in the California sun after 2 years of pandemic lockdowns and fear — it was immediately obvious that:
This. Was. The. Future.
Ok, maybe not everybody. I opened the 2022 show in 80+degree heat in shorts and a polo shirt, and somehow that — and the motorcycles roaring by — were the opening para of more than few stories.
People have finally figured it out.
This year’s festival was 4400 people, and as you can see by the photo at top, it was a full house. The media gets it (mostly), the RIA audience — 2200 strong here, get it. And the sponsors get it: The creativity of sponsor booths was really impressive (lots of innovative, clever marketing going on). I met dozens of different RIAs who brought their entire firm here as their annual offsite retreat.
When I wrote RIP Financial Conferences after the 2022 event, I got a lot of pushback. I have spoken at dozens of events since, and I cannot remember any one of them. They are all a blur of airports, hotels, conference rooms in Philly, Salt Lake City, Boston, Dallas, Atlanta. (Wait, was I even in Atlanta? I can’t recall).
Now, everybody seems to get it.
Some shout-outs are in order: First off, Matt Middleton of Advisors Circle is the brilliant mind who in 2021 answered the question, “How can we do a conference in 2022 and not make it a superspreader event?” by saying “Move the entire thing outside, I know just the place.” I told his wife at FP23 that she was married to an innovative genius, and I am re-upping that here.
Josh & Michael drove much of the big-name programming — if you recognized any speakers’ name, they were likely behind it. And Matt elevated the entire “Level Up” series to give advisors new skills and practice expertise, and that was amazing. Same for all of the life skills events, from making pizza to wine to managing your own health. It was refreshing.
Breakthru, the corporate speed-dating set-up, is also Matt’s brainchild, and that is one of the most amazing, innovative experiences you will ever have at a conference. There were 33,000 meetings of 15 minutes each, and the feedback tended to use words like “Incredible” and “Awesome.”
A big “Thank You!” to everybody who attended, shared kind words and thoughts about their experience, and just made this a spectacular event.
The entire RWM team does a great job as both concierges and free safeties in the backfield, doing our best to make sure everybody has a great time.
***
We are very excited about turning the conference business inside out. More to come in Miami, Denver, and the Bahamas.
Previously:
RIP Financial Conferences (September 15, 2022)
More photos after the jump…
Josh & Matt kick off the show
FinTech demo was great!
Hard to get a sense of the scale
Live Masters in Business with Joe Lonsdale of 8VC, founder of Palantir, Addepar, Affinity, and Opto was awesome!
Breakthru meetings were lit!
RWM Founders (in height or weight order?)
I co-hosted Bloomberg Radio live from Future Proof with the always delightful Carol Massar
Ben & Mike’s live Animal Spirits!
Squad: RWM + Advisor Circle!
We have a very deep talent pool!
Kris & Michael give a toast at our Hawaiian-themed dinner at Dukes
Hawaiian themed:
Surrounded by the best digital content crew in asset management!
X Ambassadors kicked ass (love the songs Boom! and Unsteady)
Third Eye Blind was great!
The shows were awesome!
We even had a lunar eclipse!
