We are excited to announce the Annual GAIA Conference will be taking place in Canada this September.
Due to Covid, this is the first time we have gathered in person since the Australian/Sydney GAIA Conference in 2019 – there is a palpable sense of anticipation to continue our learning, share best practice, meet up with old friends and make some new ones too, and maybe share a glass of wine, or two in celebration!
Attending this year’s conference, will be 27 business leaders (34 including partners) representing 17 wealth management firms, from 9 countries across the globe.
Activities are divided into two parts: the first is a study tour of three successful wealth management firms in three different cities. This is then followed by the main, 3 day conference, being held in Montreal, starting Sunday 18th September.
The study tour will take place over three days, where nine GAIA firms will have the opportunity to visit three great Canadian financial practices who have cultivated different pathways to growth. The tour begins in Toronto with a visit to The McClelland Financial Group hosted by the founder, Rob McClelland. We then fly to Ottawa and spend a morning and working lunch with Cameron Passmore of PWL Capital and finally, we head to Montreal to visit Tulett, Matthews and Associates, hosted by Keith Matthews.
We are extremely grateful to these firms for making time for us to visit them. Each firm will give unfettered access to their operating practices and freely share with us their successes and challenges. These visits give GAIA firms a fantastic opportunity to get under the skin of how these firms work, understand their best practices and their own unique abilities. Undoubtedly there will be some business practices exported out of Canada and adopted by the visiting GAIA firms to their home counties.
The main event, the GAIA Conference, is being hosted by PWL and their President and CEO, Brenda Barlett.
There’s an action-packed agenda, with the GAIA audience being given the opportunity to hear from four eminent external speakers including:
- Dr Moira Somers, discussing money, mental illness and well-being
- Ishita Shah of Align Impact who will look at measuring the social impact of investments in public and private markets
- We are pleased to welcome back an old GAIA friend, Brian Portnoy, who will be explore the human experience of money with GAIA member Sam Instone in a fireside chat
- Finally, we will hear from Professor Karl Moore, associate professor at McGill University, Montreal, who will facilitate an open discussion on how GAIA firms can maintain and develop culture in a post Covid world
Within GAIA we are blessed to have such depth of knowledge of the wealth management industry, and in true GAIA spirit of sharing best practice and key learnings, the conference is peppered with members sharing industry and business-related topics and we will also cover:
- Business succession and mergers – the good and “not so” good experiences
- Laura Tarbox of Tarbox Family Office will share her experience of working with some of America’s richest families
- Sarah Genequand Miche of Lyra (Switzerland) will present on the fascinating topic of gender behavioural differences in relation to investment management and personal finances
- Finally, a look at the issue around recruitment, the “War on Talent” and how to address the issue of an aging Adviser population to build meaningful careers for the next generation of Advisers
The conference closes mid-afternoon on Wednesday 21st September with delegates heading back to the four corners of the world having had a phenomenally enriching experience, voted on potential new GAIA member Tarbox Family Office, and above all agreed on the location of the 2023 GAIA conference, maybe Dubai Sam?
