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© Business Money Ltd 2006 |
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It pays to book early, especially for one of the great, world class, annual commercial finance conferences. Some were disappointed as the show was a sell-out and the few who turned up without booking and who were ‘clocked’ should have had their invoices by now. Wednesday featured the KPMG luncheon at Zofin’s Palace, something which has become a feature of every FDA conference. The Xbridge/FDA boat trip down the Vltava through a magical early night time Prague, the FDA drinks reception at the Hilton, followed by dinner at La Perle de Prague with Numerica followed in that order. People are really kind and how refreshing to find folk prepared to support and complement the great FDA event with functions of their own. The debate as to whether it would be wall-to-wall technical content, or a large measure of spiritual inspiration and lots of fun, swung towards the latter in programme content and the result was a packed conference hall throughout the day: something not always evident in the past. The technical input was of a high quality though I felt the session on product innovation, courteously and competently though it was handled by Jerry Sandak of Rosenthal and Rosenthal would have been better coming from the UK where, if not world leaders, we are closer to the pace on products relevant to the broad FDA membership than the homeland of the speaker. In any case, he made no mention of the fine line of sexier facilities available from some of the mega-ticket, US leveraged players, one of the few areas in our field where leadership comes from over the pond. Richard Pelly of GE Commercial Finance and Russell Warner of Eurofactor re-enacted the ancient battles over France with a lively account of how they proposed outdoing one another, there and in other parts of Europe. Brad Liebmann delivered a compelling vision of the internet driven future though this brought out the ostrich mentality in one or two whom, I am told, saw no place for this material. Check out early day comment on the internal combustion engine and the telephone folks, miss this bandwagon and the only option thereafter will be the hearse. Seb Coe had us all on the blocks, fired up to sprint out and spread the word on the British Olympics proposition for London in 2012. Whilst much regeneration will be the result, much of what is required is already in place. Judged by the next host, we need have no worries on the human rights score should they go downhill fast here by 2012, the potential introduction of ID cards is a massively retrograde step, one of many such infringements on our liberties, in this regard. Rumour has it though that Paris has been playing the Iraq card at every opportunity, also playing a theme of the ‘inevitability’ of the Paris location. Having grown up with plastic sages selling me the ‘inevitability’ of communism and the success of the euro I don’t do inevitability so Seb, who put on a masterly display, deserves all of the backing we can give him. If the quality of the promotional film were the only arbiter, London would be home and dry, it was a wonderfully emotive, tear jerking reminder, of our great Olympians and our great capital city. If I hear one more, heavily coached, over-hammed account of how some dumb cluck cost emergency services a fortune, so that they could go onto conference stages and make one, I may be calling for a helicopter to rescue me too. Time to drop this theme I believe. There are many more inspirational stories to be found. The European debate is ever with us and a panel of speakers comprising one of my pin-ups, the brilliant Dr De Anne Julius, Norman Lamont, whose picture might make my dart board, the excellent lawyer, David Breakell of DLA complete with an arsenal of questions from his chums and Arsenal’s greatest fan, Andy Stoneman of Menzies Corporate Restructuring, was assembled to educate us. The theme was Examining the Future of the Industry in the UK and Europe and I was asked to submit a question to which I gladly responded. Given my staunch support of the independents in the industry I couched an enquiry as to whether they would need to offer high volume money transmission services in future to compete, or indeed, to survive. This I believed could stimulate debate on the better integration of financial services to business, something which leveraged well off Brad Liebmann’s contention that too many areas of the industry have a silo mentality leading to lost opportunity, something which may have also sparked discussion on the bars to access to the clearing systems for the independents. My question fell on Stoney ground. The European theme was also evident in a charming, brief, and technically educational presentation on Business Issues in Eastern Europe from Ladislav Homan, president of The British Czech and Slovak Association and Roman Kramarik, an Advocate of Johnson and Kramarik. Michael Buerk was a great compère and his interview of Gordon Ramsey was excellent though one I feel Ramsey won hands down. Buerk’s post FDA dinner speech was a ramble through the venerable and ancient joke book and I was, personally, uncomfortable with the, maybe, too-much-protested anti racist theme. Like all great gatherings, it is sometimes easier to select the news worthy points and ignore the fact that this was a hugely successful conference. One of the key points of such gatherings is networking plus socialising with fellow professionals serving a common cause. It would not be the same without our great tribe of IPs brandishing company plastic and ensuring wrecked diets and livers. This was the theme of the leisure hours. Purists may complain but purists have a lousy survival rate in the real world. As some of the greatest supporters of ancillary events have also been notable for the immense energy and devotion they have given to the less glamorous, but exceptionally time consuming, areas of political lobbying and technical debate vital to the health of the invoice finance industry, plus the fact that many of the hosts provide immense amounts of time, expertise, premises and other support, free of charge, to FDA causes, who is more pure than anyone else? A great programme, a great gathering, fantastically well organised, and set in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. David Robertson, the inspiration and driver behind the Bibby success story in invoice finance, chaired proceedings and must be delighted. If the theme was less technical, more entertaining and spiritual, maybe that is what the weary warriors (and is it me or was there an air of weariness abroad at times in the social gatherings?) appreciated. Whatever the reasoning, it seemed to work and to work well. Congratulations to all who worked so hard to make it happen, and I must mention here Experian, the main sponsors. Editor
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