A night out? In Liverpool? After the gala dinner? Well, that appeared to be an invitation too good to refuse for many delegates. It didn’t seem to affect enthusiasm though for another packed day of treasury discussion, insight and debate. More old acquaintances renewed, more new relationships nurtured and, of course, a delicious spread for breakfast, lunch and tea!
In no particular order, benchmark reform, digital fx management, PSD2, liquidity risk management, green and sustainable finance, even blockchain and plenty more made an appearance. Crucially though delegates continued to demonstrate an appetite for understanding the new drivers of business success, for wanting to know how their peers manage risk and reward and how technology (and digital thinking) will help them deliver business success.
A very popular tradition (well, a newish one anyway) is to close the conference with 2 keynote presentations that hopefully challenge delegates in their thinking and approach to business and life. This year our first speaker, Dave Coplin, formerly Chief Envisioning Officer at Microsoft (no, I didn’t really understand that title either) offered a view that the brave new world of automation and machine learning should in reality see the rise of human intelligence, creativity and opportunity. People skills will be in demand!
Our closing presentation came from David Meade a former university lecturer turned Mentatlist. Beyond the clever party tricks of suggestive mind games (in which your correspondent was played very humorously as a stooge) the message was clear: influencing people is a serious business and knowing how to get someone to say yes shouldn’t be left to chance! For example it’s always better to deliver bad news early, or go big on a project request!
Both keynotes were hugely entertaining and very well received.
As another highly successful annual conference ends what were the key conference takeaways from your correspondent?
@michellehprice
Green bonds are no longer a niche area of the bond market. Stated at ACT Annual conference @actupdate #ACTAC18
@NatWestComm
Beneath the comedic mind games, there's an underlying reason: Influence.
For example, if you giving a series of five options for a plan of action, you should offer your preferred choice at no.3 #ACTAC18 #NWPayments
@jhbb
RISE OF THE HUMANS! @dcoplin Chief Envisioning Officer closing #ACTAC18 : what you need is someone who can ask the right questions...not a computer! Only then can you unleash the power technology has to offer. @actupdate #treasury
Roll on next year, #ACTAC19 , in Manchester
