A lighter look at the FPIA Conference

Monday, June 20th 2005, 1:01AM

I spent most of last week down in Christchurch at the FPIA Conference which, as usual, was interesting and it was great to catch up with people in the industry. We will, during the next few weeks, publish stories from some of the more interesting presentations. The lighter stuff is for the Blog…starting with…

The biggest faux pas was undoubtedly scheduling the convention dinner on the same night as the Lions v Wellington rugby game.

When news filtered out that dinner could be big screenless, the appeal of the local bars was too great for many. With the possibility that not too many males were going to front for dinner some quick planning was required. (A female only financial planning dinner would only require a phone box, not a town hall in a major city).

With a bit of a mad scramble - and no doubt a few thousand dollars - Sky was hooked up that day and the footie showed at the dinner.

The irony of this was that dinner was sponsored by Strategic Finance which is run by none other than the NZ Rugby Football Union boss Jock Hobbs (a Wellingtonian to boot).

While we're on the subject of priorities what's more important? Tea and scones or the chance to put direct questions to the chairman of the task force on adviser regulation?

I thought I knew the answer but was proved wrong. Task force chair Michael Webb made an interesting presentation to the conference on Thursday morning - and I suspect that was a big draw card for many. He raised lots of interesting ideas including one that advisers send their clients a statement every six months showing them how much commission they have received.

However, because the two earlier sessions - one from an Australian chocolate maker - went over time, MC Bob Parker told the assembled masses there was no time to ask Webb questions - rather everyone should leave the Town Hall and head over to the convention centre for morning tea. Bad call Bob.

(As a side note the Australian chocolate maker was good!)

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