It may seem strange to unpack your bags at an AustralianFinancial Planning Association(FPA) annual convention only to hear that most of the keynote speakers will be foreigners who will be talking about their own industry and experiences.
The financial planning industry’s fascination for foreign speakers has not changed this year, with Success Forum Australia 2002 including many speakers from destinations as diverse as the USA, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa and the United Kingdom.
Of the top six most popular sessions based on registration numbers, four will be delivered by international speakers, including Tom Marsh from the UK, John Benevides and Steven LeFever from the US, and Anthony Morris from South Africa.
While Australia can boast a highly developed financial planning industry relative to the rest of the world, FPA convention chair Peeyush Gupta says that international speakers are of very high quality and have the potential to add much to the local industry.
“These are the type of people that you would give your back teeth to hear from,” Gupta says.
Credit Suisse business development manager Clayton Copplestone, involved in sourcing international speakers for the convention, says validating Australia’s best practice in financial planning by listening to international speakers is valuable in itself.
“There is an enormous depth of talent in Australia, but not many people in the industry have had the opportunity to go overseas — when they do, they come to realise just how sophisticated the Australian industry really is,” Copplestone says.
Copplestone also believes international speakers have one distinct advantage over their local counterparts.
“They are much more willing and free flowing with ideas and thoughts in an environment where their competitors aren’t sitting in the audience,” he says.
Gupta believes that the international speakers are particularly strong when it comes to the ‘softer’ aspects of the convention, such as health, balance and motivation.
He says a vigorous selection process was used to put together the international speaker program for the convention.
The process involved working out the percentage of international speakers required, watching video tapes and reading transcripts of what each speaker had to offer, as well as assessing the material’s relevance to an Australian audience.
Gupta estimates that for every one international speaker that will be at the convention, over 20 were considered and discarded.
“We have gone the extra miles to get more and better quality international speakers with world-class thinking, so we can present a variety of issues to our delegates,” Gupta says.
“We don’t ever want to be insular as an industry, always presenting the same old views. This is how we build the industry,” Copplestone says.
