And then on to day three. What might have seemed a relatively quiet start after the night before didn't dissuade plenty of delegates from attending the morning ACT track sessions on treasury talent and Deals of the Year. Early birds getting their worms.
A welcome brunch brought many to life and it's one of those ideas for the third day morning we should have put in place many moons ago. Yes, I am a big fan of a sausage bun. Add a fair sized mushroom and I could be yours for life!
Breakfast was the set up for two more powerful if contrasting plenary presentations with excellent audience participation. Two outstanding women bringing further gender balance to our plenary speaker line up after Alison Rose yesterday.
First up, Dr Minouche Shafik from the Bank of England with a weighty economic analysis and some positive signs on economic growth and its grease, credit availability across all sizes of business. More to do and risk aplenty but good news.
I was fulsome in my praise of the day two speech from Sir Richard Shirreff. Richly so. Rightly so. And then, pow!
Baroness Manningham-Buller, Eliza to this audience, was simply outstanding. A beautifully crafted seemingly effortless 40 minutes of insight from a professional career in public service. Leadership, management, change, responsibility all elegantly distilled with no little humour. She even ran her own q & a. Well, I wasn't about to say no! She wowed me, she wowed the audience and certainly deserved the sustained applause.
I might be biased but the keynotes and plenaries this year have been the best I have heard in many years of ACT conference going. Annie Nason has left us with a tough challenge for next year!
3 more short workshop sessions rounded off the day and the conference. A good and enjoyable way to end. Knowledge, experience skills and insight willingly shared. It's what we do.
Our appreciation of course to all our sponsors, exhibitors, speakers and delegates. It's no surprise this is the largest professional treasury body event anywhere outside the US when we have that kind of support.
Thank you
