Future-proof 2024: Wow!! - The big picture

NOW that’s a financial conference!

If you’re reading this on the 19th, I might still be asleep. I’m writing this on my flight home, which is scheduled to land at midnight on Wednesday; I haven’t had any alcohol all week (okay, one Mexican beer Tuesday afternoon at my RWM crew pool swim after the Animal spirits live!), and although I feel pretty good, it’s been a long week.

When we did the first FuturePpoof in 2022, there was a lot of skepticism: sponsors were cautious, the media was reserved, even members of my team had no idea what this would look like — no one really knew what to think. When people arrived on the beach in the California sun after 2 years of pandemic lockdowns and fear, it was immediately clear that:

This. Was. The. Future.

Okay, maybe not everyone. I opened the 2022 show in 80+ degree heat in shorts and a polo shirt, and somehow that — and the roaring motorcycles — were the opening paragraph of more than a few stories.

People finally get it.

This year’s festival drew 4,400 people and as you can see in the photo above, it was packed. The media gets it (for the most part), the RIA crowd — 2,200 people here, gets it. And the sponsors get it: the creativity of the sponsor booths was truly impressive (lots of innovative, clever marketing). I met dozens of different RIAs who brought their entire companies here as their annual offsite retreat.

When I wrote RIP Financial Conferences after the 2022 event, I got a lot of pushback. I’ve spoken at dozens of events since then and I can’t remember a single one. They’re all a blur of airports, hotels, conference rooms in Philly, Salt Lake City, Boston, Dallas, Atlanta. (Was I even in Atlanta? I don’t remember.)

Now, everyone seems to get it.

A few shout-outs are in order: First, Matt Middleton of Advisor Circle is the brilliant mind who answered the question in 2021: “How can we organize a conference in 2022 without turning it into a superspreader event??” by saying “Put the whole thing outside, I know exactly where it is.” I told his wife at FP23 that she was married to an innovative genius, and I repeat that here.

Josh and Michael were the driving force behind a lot of the big name programming — if you recognized the speakers’ names, they were probably behind it. And Matt took the whole “Level Up” series to the next level to give advisors new skills and real-world experience, which was great. The same went for all the life skills events, from making pizza to wine to managing your own health. It was refreshing.

Breakthru, the corporate speed-dating set-up, is also Matt’s brainchild, and it’s one of the most amazing, innovative experiences you’ll ever have at a conference. There were 33,000 meetings, each 15 minutes long, and the feedback was amazing.

A big “Thank you!” to everyone who attended, shared kind words and thoughts about their experience, and made this a spectacular event.

My whole team does a great job as janitors and free safety guys in the backfield, we do everything we can to make sure everyone has a great time.

***

We are very excited to turn the conference business inside out. More to come in Miami, Denver and the Bahamas.

Earlier:
RIP Financial Conferences (September 15, 2022)

More photos after the jump…

Josh and Matt kick off the show