PI Conference 2008 Closure Report

June 2008

The fifth annual Perfect Information Conference was held from 13th-15th May, 2008 at Walton Hall and Hotel in Warwickshire. The conference went very smoothly. Being both educationally and socially successful, it provided delegates with a varied programme and valuable time to spend with industry peers. The networking opportunities and programme content along with the professional organisation were three aspects which the delegates highlighted as being excellent this year, although there were some less than positive comments made about a couple of the breakout sessions being sales angled and some of the venue facilities failing to impress. We were also very lucky to have a host of sponsors on board this year: mergermarket (PIC 08 Premier Sponsor); D&B; LexisNexis; Experian; ICC; RM Group; Intelligent Resources; Smartlogic; FactSet; and 7Side and we would like to thank them all for their valuable support.

We had a record number of delegates in attendance in Warwickshire including 11 brand new companies coming to the conference. The split of industries at the conference was as follows:
Law Firms 40%
Financial 36%
Vendors/Recruitment 19%
Other (which includes industry bodies & press) 5%

On the whole, the feedback was very positive, with the vast majority of feedback forms recommending that their company attend the conference in 2009. We have already had a number of excellent and exciting suggestions for venues, topics to include next year and ways to better the conference format that we are eager to execute next year.

Feedback Highlights: (5 = excellent, 4 = very good, 3= good, 2= fair and 1= poor)

• Aspects of the conference such as booking/admin, programme content, networking opportunities, organisation and the overall event mainly received scores of 4 and 5.
• The main attractions for attending the event were the networking opportunities, programme content, attendee list, previous attendance, word of mouth and the opportunity to share experiences with industry colleagues.
• The majority of speakers were given a high ranking, ranging between 3 and 5. The most popular speakers were Piers Fallowfield-Cooper, Sarah Fahy, Scott Keyser, Roland Peters and Manny Cohen.

Breakout Sessions:

• Feedback from the breakout sessions was on the whole very positive with many attendees liking the sessions on the softer skills. PI will be looking into developing a programme of events throughout the year which focuses on the most popular topics amongst delegates.
• From this year's feedback it is clear that the best sessions were those that were interactive and involved sharing experiences amongst the group.
• The most popular sessions were Effective Writing with Scott Keyser, Introduction to Fixed Income with Roland Peters and the UK Companies Act with Manny Cohen.

Networking & Social Events:

Both the pre-conference and gala dinner evenings received a very warm welcome from the delegates, as they were seen as excellent opportunities to network and socialise with friends, vendors and new industry peers. The pre-conference evening, sponsored by LexisNexis, welcomed delegates to the conference and allowed them to catch up with one another in relaxed and comfortable surroundings. This year's Gala Dinner, hosted by D&B, became quite a lively affair when the Swinging Little Big Band got delegates up dancing.

Delegate quotes from the PIC 2008:

"Thank you and everybody involved for such a superb event! What can I say - you have pulled it off yet again. And made it look so effortless and never stopped smiling! For me, the conference is now THE industry event!"
Isabella Follwell - Threadneedle Asset Management

"Thank you for organising the conference superbly - I think your efforts were widely appreciated by the delegates. Well organised, very good range of topics, good duration of time allocated and friendly PI staff."
David Mantle - Barlow Lyde and Gilbert

"I thought the conference was really good - the content and the social/networking side as well. And all the PI team were very friendly and welcoming - which is really important when you come to something on your own. Good value for money"
Frances Holmes - ING Bank

"Best welcome I have ever had at a conference!"
Sue Hill - Sue Hill Recruitment