FIS 2020: Networking roundtables

The final session of FIS Digital 2020 allowed investors to ‘meet’ and share ideas via private networking groups using a breakthrough technology

The final session of FIS Digital 2020, Conexus Financial’s last digital event of the year attended by 185 asset owners with a collective $11 trillion assets under management, marked another milestone in the company’s innovative event delivery.

FIS Digital 2020 delegates were able to network with peers in a simulation of a live roundtable discussion. Investors joined private chat rooms with peers using special networking technology to discuss the key themes of the conference in “rooms” or “tables.”

Each discussion was chaired by a different asset owner or manager speaker. Richard Williams, CIO of the United Kingdom’s £25 billion ($33 billion) RMPI Railpen, Jaap van Dam, principal director, investment strategy at the Netherland’s €268 billion ($325 billion) PGGM which manages assets for more than 2.5 million Dutch participants, and Mark Walker, CIO of the UK’s £21 billion ($27 billion) Coal Pension Trustee led and coordinated the discussions, adding their own experiences from a tumultuous year.

For Walker this included a heightened focus on idea generation and new sources of income producing assets.

For Railpen the focus has been on seeking out investment opportunties and drawing on a cash pile built up especially for the kinds of opportunities crises trigger, while for PGGM the focus has been on a green recovery.

In year when sharing and collaboration in person, a vital lifeblood to investment, has been impossible FIS 2020 Digital was able to offer a valuable alternative.