“Turning the Corner – Delivering Value over the Next Decade”
Friday 11th February, 5.30am. I quietly crept out of bed so as not to wake my wife. This time of the morning is a shock to my student system but nevertheless I was excited for today would be the culmination of 6 months planning. We had three top class keynote speakers (Johannes Huth of KKR, Vincenzo Morelli of TPG Capital and Olivier Sarkozy of Carlyle Group) and four diverse panels covering both PE and VC. These 26 names had drawn more than 300 plus professionals, alumni, faculty and students to a sell-out event.
6.15am and on the 74 bus I have time to compose a short email to my previous employer. If I’m going to be up at this hour I might as well let somebody know!
8am with final preparations complete, the doors to the venue open and we stand armed with delegate name badges, smiles and directions to the C and three Bs; cloakroom, breakfast, bathroom, brochure.
After a rousing introduction from the Dean, Andrew Likierman, the conference kicked off in earnest. In between fulfilling front desk, ushering and microphone duties I was able catch some of the on-stage action.
One of the keynotes spoke with real passion about the introduction of new regulation (AIFMD) into Private Equity posturing that the reason this regulation was brought in was in part due to the poor perception in which European politicians regarded PE. Whilst the likely cost to PE is still unknown, the sentiment one was left with was that the regulatory burden could have been much worse.
The Emerging Markets welcomed Linda Yueh one of the world class economics professors from London Business School moderating a panel of speakers focusing on areas ranging from South East Asia, to Sub Saharan Africa, to Eastern Europe. While the Fund-raising panel welcomed panellists responsible for raising more than $50 billion over the last 10 years.
One of the speakers, with his dry wit and perfectly timed delivery had the audience in stitches. In taking questions from the audience, his candid responses left no-one in doubt as to where he stood with regard to the economic recovery. He explained that the US Economy had gotten into the crisis because it had over leveraged itself and now was trying to get out of it by borrowing.
The conference was rounded off by the VC Panel, skilfully moderated by Keith Willey, Associate Professor at LBS. It saw much disagreement about the future of VC in Europe with some predicting that London would become the next Silicon Valley whilst others argued that there just wasn’t enough entrepreneurial concentration for it to ever be able to compete with Silicon Valley.
Like any event, it is always difficult to quantify just how successful it was. However, never in my experience has a conference been so in demand that it has had to turn away Corporate Sponsors and panellists. Indeed, with one in every three tickets bought by industry professionals, seven years since first launch, has this become one of the PE and VC industries must attend events?
No comments:
Post a Comment