Review: 7th Annual Lantern Fund Forum, Lugano Mario Valentino Guffanti, CFTe The 7th Annual Lantern Fund Forum (LFF) in Lugano, was held on 20-21 November. This most important event in Switzerland which is reserved for financial professionals and focuses on asset management, investment tools and fundamental analysis.
exclusively for the institutional public. For the past three years we have been making a further selection within the institutional public sector segment, distinguishing between those who are buy-side, i. e., those who are potential buyers or investors of third-party funds and who have liquidity to manage and invest, and all the others. We want to focus on the high-end segment which we invited to the Forum for free.
In addition, there have been some phenomena that continue to grow year after year, bringing more and more organizational problems. I am referring to people who register and then, without notice, do not show up to the event, or people who, despite having three months to register, only show up at the start of the event. This causes serious problems for the event organizers (the size of the rooms, the numbers for catering, the number of badges and brochures, the amount of material that sponsors must bring, etc.).
A new format
This year the format was slightly different, in the sense that access to previous Fund Forums have always been free-of-charge, and subject to online registration or on site. This year, however, only the delegates who belonged to the buy-side, i.e., those who are potential buyers or investors of third party funds and who have liquidity to manage and invest had free admission, while the other participants had to pay an entry fee. Another innovation was introduced where we could find an important special session focused on the hottest topics of the moment, not strictly linked to asset management: Fintech, cryptocurrencies and blockchain. I interviewed Riccardo Esposito, CEO of Lantern Fund Forum, to better understand the new format.
MVG: Good morning Riccardo, can you tell our readers why you decided to change from a free to a paid event? RE: For several reasons. First, to make you perceive the event was quality: To pay is the litmus test of quality, of how much you believe in your products and services. My goal is not to make money, but non-payment equals little or no value.
The Fund Forum should be synonymous with quality and prestige, and in this perspective our organization decided from the beginning to eliminate the retail sector and aim
MVG: What have you achieved from this Fund Forum? RE: From the point of view of numbers I am satisfied. Despite the introduction of the entrance fee, we had 1,200 attendees, about 200 delegates less than last year. But if we analyze this drop in attendance, those who were buy-side increased, while the cut took place in the sell-side: we had 60+% buy-side and about 40% sell-side. We hope that this qualitative improvement was noticed by our sponsors, but we have to wait to evaluate the results of follow-ups in the coming weeks to understand their level of satisfaction. Regarding the introduction of topics focused on Fintech, blockchain and cryptocurrencies, I am more than satisfied. Our classical audience followed these topics with great interest. The introduction of new topics to our classic program, enables us to attract a new audience to LFF.
SAMT & IG Bank
This year, SAMT partnered with IG Bank and I conducted a workshop with Andreas Ruhlmann, Premium Client Manager and Market Analyst, at IG Bank. The content was
30 • Autumn-Winter 2017 • The Swiss Technical Analysis Journal