I could say that this was one of our best ever opening days for speakers. I could say the same for the numbers of delegates through the doors of the ACC. I could even say that we’ve got the best exhibition hall we’ve ever had. But I won’t because I want to say them all and more besides!
There’s a real sense that treasury and the role of the treasurer has bloomed in recent years but the emphasis in the various sessions on the strategic importance of the work treasuries does was loud and clear. A really engaging session on fx as part of risk management morphed into a much wider discussion on the balance of risk and opportunity and how corporates should assessment impact and return. Judging the stream of questions of the conference app, we could have gone on much longer!
The day started with a short but superbly concise presentation from Prof. John Kay. In short, most financial industry activity is just trading of assets between financial businesses so where’s the value in that? Most financial services regulation is pointless and even more so when it negatively impacts the real economy. And potentially more worrying, Prof Kay was concerned that the distance between financial services and the real economy and consumers does not bode well for capitalism. (For more, try his book, ‘Other People’s Money’).
A panel discussion (for the record, two men and two women) discussed a lively presentation on workplace diversity and how to work with conscious and unconscious bias. The answers? Well, women may not be cleverer, but they contribute much more effectively to team output. Your correspondent would agree! And I’m not saying any more on that! More seriously in an interconnected world cultural awareness is critical but not necessarily the only benchmark
Naturally no ACT conference is properly under way until the first coffee is drunk, the first sandwich packet thrown away and the first beer is enjoyed. Why then am I still writing when it’s almost 6pm? Good question.
