Alfi’s major conferences are back beginning on Monday. But, due to the covid-19 crisis, the event will take place via webcast. Used to bringing together the top of the profession in front of audiences of more than 600 people, Alfi was, in quick succession, forced to cancel its asset management conference in March and global distribution conference in September.
“We had started working on a three-day concept that would bring the two themes together, but we also had to abandon this project,” said Virginie Tripet, senior event manager at Alfi.
A five day agenda
Instead, the association has finally set up a series of back-to-school season conferences that will run throughout the week. “We had to play it safe. Everything was set up in two months whereas, usually, a conference is organised in six months”, according to Tripet, who was in charge of coordinating the event.
Each session was assigned to an event sponsor, who could choose the speakers. About fifty speakers are on the programme and divided between the daily panels, which will not last more than two-and-a-half hours. “We recorded 10 sessions at the beginning of September with a mix between speakers in the studio and others on videoconference,” explained Tripet.
Note, however, that the minister of finance, Pierre Gramegna (DP), will speak live on Tuesday, as will Claude Marx, the director general of the Luxembourg Financial Sector Supervisory Commission (CSSF). In general, it will also be possible to ask questions. Some speakers will respond by video, but all have promised, in any case, to respond by email to the questions that are asked.
600 people have already registered for the different sessions. The advantage of the formula is that the talks can be watched until 4 October, so it is even possible to register after the event has ended.
For the rest, Alfi hopes to be able to return with public events as soon as possible. “We miss it, us and our sponsors. The networking aspect is also very important,” states Tripet. “We are considering a hybrid formula for our conference in December [editor’s note: on real estate and private equity], but it is still too early to consider it clearly.”