It’s Today!
Today’s the day! The much-anticipated NACFB Expo of 2021 kicked off Thursday, with doors opening to over 2000 brokers at around 9:30am. Not much face to face networking has happened since 2019 due to the pandemic so Thursday’s event is an especially sensational one!
The event played host to the Association’s leadership team, special guest speakers and various panellists who have been chosen for unique insight and credible vision for our industry’s future. For the first time ever this year, the Conference will have a dedicated host for all sessions and the association is very proud to welcome the esteemed host and acclaimed financial journalist, Naga Munchetty. Munchetty presents BBC One’s World News and BBC Breakfast and also broadcasts on the biggest financial stories across the corporation! She has extensive live event experience and has a range of corporate clients.
On the agenda as a guest speak at Thursday’s event was also Phillip Collins, a leading figure on modern rhetoric, a British journalist, and a former speechwriter for ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair. Before branching into journalism, Collins spent several years as an equity strategist in investment banking as well as sitting as director of the Social Market Foundation before becoming Blair’s chief speechwriter. Collins provided a guest speech titled ‘Where do we go from here’ at 10:45am at the event. This weighed up the personalities, compromises, and agenda of the leading political players in the current political landscape. This discussion on the direction of policy travel is useful to those of us in the finance world.
More about the NACFB Expos agenda can be seen here.
A new feature of the Expo this year is ‘The Exchange Stage’. The goal of this is to offer an exchange of insights, views, and experiences within the world of finance. Representatives conversed in an informal setting and cast aside professional rivalries to seek collaboration instead. Brokers were invited to observe the sector-based dialogues and contribute to questions.
Sounds like it has been an exciting day for our MD and NACFB Chair, Paul with all of the discussions and exciting speakers!
Following the theme of the pieces yesterday and Tuesday, we gained insight of Paul’s diary for the day:
Paul’s Diary:
- 6:30am – Paul rang home to wife Roxanne and then went down for breakfast at the hotel. After this he headed straight over to the NEC for the Expo
- 9:30am – doors open to brokers
- 10:30am – Paul was due on stage to open the conference theatre
- 11:15am – Paul on stage as part of the panel for a seminar on Shaping Policy & Regulation and Relief, Recovery and Reform along with Patrick Magee – British Business Bank, Mike Conroy – UK Finance, and Prof. Trevor Williams – University of Derby
- 4:30pm – the Conference closes, Paul will have shot off just before this to Princethorpe college, Coventry, to watch son Jamie play in a school rugby match
- After the rugby match, Paul will head home to spend some family time with wife Roxanne and son Jack before going to bed to rest after the lively day!
Quotes:
Paul’s commented that “it’s been 839 days since I opened the last face to face NACFB United Kingdom commercial finance expo. I was on stage at 10:35am to open this year’s event. It is an absolute honour to represent our great Association. Incredibly proud doesn’t even cover how I feel about what our 2000+ members have achieved throughout the Pandemic. Nearly £30 billion of lending in 2020, truly amazing”
It sounds like the event was absolutely smashing and we hope Paul has the chance to relax from his busy week on Friday!