What a busy end to the year! Last week saw us complete the final events of 2021. We were thrilled to help deliver Cazenove’s Charity Investment Forum, a physical event in London, Premier Miton’s Insights virtual conference and the third BNY Mellon’s Inside the Fund Managers head digital event series. We look forward to lots more physical and virtual events in 2022.

Such a fab week last week, with three major events. We ran a virtual event from a bespoke studio for a client in Edinburgh. They had the most incredible agenda, packed full of stimulating speakers. The next day we were in Harrogate, working with RSMR on their annual conference and dinner, sponsored by 16 groups - clients said it gets better every year. At the same time we held the two-day Brewin Dolphin Investment Conference, with 13 sponsors sharing their latest thoughts.  

For the last six months or so, we've been working on a fabulous website project for Sheffield Haworth. Their new website is now live: designed and built from scratch here at MiP. Along the way, we also developed a new logo and look-and-feel for the company. A great journey and a great client.

www.sheffieldhaworth.com

It was great to be back in Edinburgh yesterday filming pre-recorded interview footage to be used at an upcoming digital client conference in November. Virtual events are becoming more and more like high-end TV programmes – we enjoy utilising our in-house filming, editing and production/direction resources to make these top-end programmes.

We have just started releasing the eighth annual Marketing Directors Research – a joint initiative that aims to provide reliable benchmarking data on marketing spend and marketing resources employed in our industry. This year we have offered the 16 fund groups who participated the ability to create their own completely bespoke report and broadened out the dataset to full global coverage.

Now physical events are making a comeback, we are so pleased to be seeing some of our favourite speakers in real life. After our recent Select and JIC, we have had amazing feedback on Monty Halls (broadcaster and expedition leader), Robert Shrimsely (FT’s UK Chief Political Commentator), and Gabrielle Walker (expert climate scientist). Looking ahead, we’ll also be working with some new speakers including Tali Sharot (neuroscientist at UCL), Helle Thorning-Schmidt (former Prime Minister of Denmark), and Lewis Pugh (climate pioneer), as well as some old favourites too.

We have just finished designing a series of six sustainability / impact reports for Affirmative Investment Managers (AIM). Totalling well over 350 pages, this is always a great project to work on every year and tested both our creative and project management skills!

We are delighted that the new Ingenious Group website https://www.theingeniousgroup.co.uk has gone live. The entire site was designed and built inhouse at MiP using Adobe XD and custom code. It’s just one of several large digital project we’re working on at the moment, so watch this space!

Wow what a week. Events are back with a bang. As well as working with 12 sponsors to host the Joint Investment Conference (spread over three days in the glorious setting of the Four Seasons, Hampshire), we partnered with Square Mile and 16 fund groups for the Square Mile Investment Conference at Claridge's. We're now setting up for Select next week, where 10 fund management groups will present to an audience of investment advisers. 

JIC has now wrapped up and feedback is outstanding. Thank you to all the delegates, sponsors and speakers who attended - it was amazing to see you again.

It's so wonderful to be back at live events - currently at the Four Seasons Hampshire getting ready to welcome all our delegates and sponsors for JIC.

We were delighted to launch the new corporate website for Full Circle Capital this week: https://www.fullcircle.capital

All aspects were completed in-house at MiP (design, coding, creation of animations and project management). Our teams worked seamlessly to complete the project in a matter of weeks.

This week the Sanlam Invested in the Future series came to a close with the final event featuring Samantha Simmonds and Miriam Akhtar discussing the 'Future of Happiness'. It has been a real pleasure to work on this series of 5 virtual events exploring a range of topical issues with some of the country’s leading thinkers, experts and social commentators. All events were filmed in a fully branded studio at Sanlam's office and streamed out to a virtual audience in TV quality.

It's been a busy week for Jupiter virtual events, continuing their Value of Active Minds Series with the second Sustainable Investing Academy yesterday, and a Corporate Bond event this morning. The Corporate Bond event saw fund managers Adam Darling and Harry Richards, in conversation with Ariel Bezalel discussing the merits of a flexible approach to investment-grade corporate bonds.

Event 3 in the RSMR Candid Conversations Series - The Responsible Revolution, will see speakers from Royal London, Janus Henderson, J.P. Morgan and BMO GAM discuss all things ESG, and where the growth opportunities are for investors going forward.

The first event in the Jupiter Sustainable Investing Academy kicks off today with a presentation from Jupiter's Head of Sustainable Investing. The Academy promises to be both accessible and engaging, featuring a series of six, 30-minute online training sessions throughout June and July.

Our third delivery of the Power of 3 as a virtual event, and we're pleased to say we are still managing to reach over 400 clients across the UK, albeit virtually. We hope in time we will be back on the road to greet you once again! 

Another great panel discussion today as we kicked off the first RSMR Candid Conversations event of the virtual series! The next event will be taking place on the 19th May. 

Whilst we love the challenges and possibilities virtual events offer, we are looking ahead and starting to put together exciting plans for physical events later on this year. We have now planned dates for JIC and Select on 21-22 Sept and 28-29 September 2021. 

It’s been great to see how quickly both our clients and speakers have adapted to working in a virtual environment. Some of our tried and tested favourites have joined us in virtual world, including acclaimed futurists Ian Goldin and Leo Johnson, economist Stephen King, FT journalist Gideon Rachman, and former fighter pilot Mandy Hickson. Other familiar faces have included Gabrielle Walker, the climate strategist and scientist, and John Amaechi, former NBA star who is now a leading expert in diversity and organisational culture. We’re also delighted to be working with an exciting array of new speakers. Recent guests have included Jean-Claude Trichet and geopolitical analyst Tina Fordham...and many more!

We are thrilled with the outcome of the BNY Mellon  virtual Investment Conference yesterday. The event was a huge success, with almost 300 people logging in live to enjoy a mix of individual presentations, panel discussions and fantastic video content.

We are gearing up for the BNY Mellon virtual Investment Conference, taking place this Wednesday. 15 speakers from different parts of the world presenting live to a global audience - the advantages of the virtual world!

Whilst our focus is on asset management, we do occasionally undertake projects in other sectors. One such project was the new website for Sheffield Haworth's Leadership offering, which we designed and built from scratch. We also helped with content and created the video you can see on the home page. It was such a pleasure to work on, with great results: www.sheffieldhaworthleadership.com/

Another busy day for the MiP team as we begin filming the second academic session with Green Templeton College, in partnership with Franklin Templeton Investments. We're looking forward to hearing about the key lessons learnt from COVID for recovery strategies.

We are pleased to now have a full complement of speakers for the next Brewin Dolphin Virtual Investment Training Conference and look forward to working with everyone.

This week, we are delighted to livestream the first event of the Sanlam Invested in the future series, focusing on the future of money. 

We were joined by Ninety One, Artemis and Columbia Threadneedle for the second Select virtual series event today. Speakers presented on a range of topics, followed by a 30-minute panel discussion titled 'Brexit and beyond'. Lots of interesting thoughts and ideas shared! Next week we are joined by the final three of our nine sponsoring groups - J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Invesco and Schroders. 

A great start to our Select virtual series today. We usually host this event every June at the Four Seasons in Hampshire but we have adapted to hold it virtually by splitting the event across three mornings, with three different sponsors each day. We had over 80 delegates log in and a good attendance in our optional networking sessions - we look forward to the second and third events on 26 Jan and 2 Feb. 

26 different asset management groups, 44 different speakers, 700 minutes of live presenting air time and more than 750 attendees is the result of our two biggest virtual events so far. A logistical journey and great success for the Brewin Dolphin Virtual Investment Training Conference and RSMR Around the World. 

Great day of technical rehearsals for the Brewin Dolphin Virtual Investment Training Conference today. We have a great line up for the 11 & 12 November with 14 different sponsors, 4 external speakers and more than 250 delegates signed up. 

We’ve quickly adapted to running virtual events, with 10 successfully delivered in recent months and 8 more to come in the next few weeks. That said, we can’t wait to see everyone at a live event next year - fingers crossed!

As more and more events get rescheduled, now more than ever it is important to plan successful events. With this in mind, we have created Events-Calendar to help you better plan your events and avoid clashes where possible.

Another great virtual event streaming live from Jupiter’s office for the second event in their Big Picture Series. A really engaging panel debate with some fantastic comments received from viewers so far. We are looking forward to the next one on 13 October!

Busy events week this week: 3 virtual events, over 200 people attending live polling for one event, over 600 people attending the events overall, and a fantastic day live streaming from Jupiter's office. 

Though we may have missed out on meeting advisers on the road this year, we were delighted to be able to bring the Multi-Manager Forum directly to their homes and workspaces on the 9th September. With Lawrence Gosling hosting the event, alongside 4 leading fund managers from BMO GAM, Fidelity International, Jupiter and Schroders, we hope the advisers enjoyed the fast-paced interview format and the interactive panel Q&A... we certainly did!

Great to see that BNY Mellon have won yet another award for their rebrand - MiP are proud to be one of their agency partners. We thoroughly enjoyed working on this project and seeing the exceptional work of M&C Saatchi come to life.

Despite lockdown, we are delighted to still be very busy with new and existing projects. Our decision not to furlough our staff was the right one, as many events are transitioning to a virtual world - we have rapidly become experts in this space! That said, we very much hope to be holding physical events again the new year and can't wait to see our clients in real life!

After a bit of a lull in the Spring, we are seeing marketing projects pick up again and have secured some fascinating new business. Work keeping us busy ranges from running a strategic project for a very large fund manager to helping a new launch define its identity.

We really enjoyed Fixed Income Live yesterday with M&G, Jupiter and TwentyFour – a virtual event with a difference! Three leading fund managers in a wide-ranging, live discussion that assessed the outlook for fixed income investors. A great turnout and some really positive feedback received from viewers so far – we look forward to working on similar events in the near future!

We have officially finished the project, which started in January 2019, to help Investec Asset Management demerge and become Ninety One. In the client's own words, it's been a ‘gargantuan undertaking' and one that we are proud to have been part of. We've worked across all the various marketing workstreams with the in-house team and many of Ninety One's other suppliers as well as running the overall project management and reporting into their governance framework. We wish Ninety One every continued success for the future!

In this environment, more and more fund management groups are turning to online events to keep advisers and fund selectors up to date with fund news. We are delighted to be working with so many groups to create innovative online events.

Power of 3, usually a nationwide roadshow, was transformed into our first virtual event on the 19th May. We had a great turnout, with more people watching than came to the Autumn live events last year. So far, we've had fantastic feedback from viewers - lots of 5 star ratings and some really nice comments.

Individuals within the asset management industry are donating and raising funds to support NHS Charities. All donations will support the amazing NHS staff in the UK. If you’d like to help (however small), please follow this link. To help us spread the word, comment with #ivedonated beneath the LinkedIn post.

In these challenging times, views from industry professionals are becoming more valued. With this in mind, we have decided to provide our Adviser-Hub subscribers with an extra weekly offering. This new weekly addition will provide you with topic-related content. Register here to receive our emails.

This month we've been focusing a lot of attention on the F&C Investment Trust Prize - a competition within universities which encourages students to share their thoughts on saving and investing. Last year's winner gave us an exceptional submission looking at the companionship industry. This year, we're launching with 5 universities around the country.

Excellent brainstorm and planning meeting today to kick off the Walter Scott 2021 conference - great to be planning so far ahead!

We now have all our sponsors lined up for the next fabulous Brewin Dolphin Investment Conference. These never fail to impress, with a brilliant line-up of managers and an engaged and curious audience ready to quiz them.

Delighted to be working with a new wealth management client on a consultancy project to review their distribution efforts. It's always interesting getting to know a new team and unearthing what really makes them an outstanding business.

This is definitely a Summer of speaker bookings! Clients are booking for Q4 and beyond. Speaking briefs at the moment have a definite slant towards Brexit, international trade and climate change... with a smattering of futurists and AI experts in the mix. Our busiest summer ever, with more and more clients looking for external contributors to spice up their conference agenda.

Thank you to delegates for the great feedback we've received on a ‘very well thought out’ and ‘outstanding’ Select 2019, the ‘best event of its type in the year’.  We’re so glad you enjoyed your time with our 10 sponsoring groups; two days of ‘Interesting topics, great presenters and enough time to discuss pressing issues with peers’. Like you, we’re ‘looking forward to next year already!’

We now have all 16 sponsors lined up for the Square Mile Investment Conference on 17th October. It's all about news, views, opinion and debate around markets and world issues. We certainly have plenty to talk about!

We're delighted to see Schroders Personal Wealth launched as a standalone company this week. MiP has been working with Lloyds Banks and Schroders over the past 8 months on many of the workstreams for this exciting joint venture, including content, staff engagement, brand development and a myriad of other marketing deliverables.

We're excited to be working in partnership with Square Mile on their first investment conference, which will bring together 16 leading fund management groups. Through presentations, panel discussions and breakout sessions, we aim to provide a comprehensive update on the investment world. 

So amazing that CASCAID has raised over £1 million for Great Ormond Street Hospital. CASCAID is a charity initiative founded and managed by MiP, which brings together leaders in asset management to raise money for good causes. Recently we've seen some amazing activities - Peter Harrison and a team from Schroders did a skydive, Charles Davies from Investec ran four marathons and Aviva Investors climbed the highest of the Atlas Mountains. Keep going!

Just a few of the comments from delegates at last week's JIC. 

"A fantastic event, brilliantly organised" 

"Great team, great organisation, great conference"

"Thoughtfully put together, a total immersion in funds, themes and markets"

"This year was the 15th JIC, wonderful to see it still doing so well after all these years"

We've just spent a thoroughly enjoyable two days with Brewin Dolphin at their Scottish investment conference. With 13 fund management groups and around 125 wealth managers, it's been a busy couple of days.

Another content-rich Annual Investment Conference with BNY Mellon at the Rosewood Hotel; fascinating guest speakers, brought to life with video across an impressive 15 metre LED screen. We’ve loved working with our event partners again on one of their flagship conferences.

We are delighted to have worked on the Sarasin Spring Seminars again in March, held over 3 days in London and 1 day in Dublin, with over 550 delegates in attendance. This year’s theme of ‘Securing tomorrow, today’ saw speakers cover a ‘safety first’ approach to topics.

With two successful discretionary Premier conferences and two multi-manager conferences since the start of the year, we’re looking forward to the regional seminars in a few weeks. Great stream of events to be working on with a brilliant team.

Our annual Select conference is now almost full. See www.selectconference.co.uk for details.

Registration is now open for the Joint Investment Conference. Now in its 15th year, this event is one of the longest-standing conferences for the top-end discretionary audience. www.jicevents.co.uk

Delighted to have started working with Investec Asset Management on their demerger. A prestigious and exciting project. 

Such a pleasure to work with Janus Henderson again on their UK Investment Conference yesterday - looking at the investment landscape with fund managers and investment experts, including the FT's Gillian Tett. A packed one-day interactive conference and a great start to 2019!

As another busy year draws to a close, we are excited about 2019. As well as all our regular events (including flagships JIC and Select) we have recently secured a number of new conferences and look forward to establishing these in the annual calendar. As well as our usual marketing activities, we will be working with Investec Asset Management on their demerger and rebrand and helping Schroders with the new JV with Lloyds. Work also carries on apace with BMO GAM and the F&C Investment Trust, where the education programme will be expanding across further schools and universities. 2019 looks to be stimulating and productive!

What an amazing CASCAID dinner last night. A who's who of the investment industry. Great company, great compering by Richard Pursglove, great speech from the parent of a GOSH patient. Tens of thousands raised for charity. Congrats to the winners of our Outstanding Contribution to Charity awards: Joffy Willcocks, Marcus Brookes, BMO GAM and Barclays. MiP are proud to lead this initiative that brings our industry together to raise money for great causes. 

We're very much looking forward to seeing everyone at the CASCAID dinner on Monday. Over 600 people from all around the industry, getting together to raise money for Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Fabulous day today at the Aviva Investors conference. Excellent presentations from the AI team, including CEO Euan Munro. Fascinating keynotes from David Miliband and Martin Elliot, all linking to our theme of "adapting to thrive".

All set for the Brewin Dolphin conference tomorrow - 14 fund groups over 2 days, as well as a dinner with politician David Davis. Great line-up with a lot to talk about!

We're looking forward to the launch of the F&C Investment Trust Prize on 3rd December. This link-up between F&CIT and City of College Glasgow is a novel and exciting way to get young people more interested in saving and investing. More news to follow soon!

Over the past week, the MiP team have managed four large events with a combined budget in excess of £1.3 million for four very different businesses. We’ve registered and interacted with over 1,000 delegates (many of whom are amongst the most important investors from around the world), printed 7,000 items of literature, created dozens of videos and listened to over 20 external speakers, all booked via SiP, including Nick Clegg, Andrew Marr and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (the first elected female head of state in Africa). 

Wednesday this week was the annual Legg Mason Investment Conference – an event we are very proud to have been involved with for over 8 years. Fund managers from all over the world flew in to engage with many of the UK’s most important fund selectors and researchers. The conference was topped off by a keynote address from Nick Clegg who shared his unfiltered thoughts on populism and politics.

Today we're working for Legg Mason organising their annual conference at the May Fair Hotel, as well as with Walter Scott in Edinburgh. Exciting week!

Amazing conference for BMO Global Asset Management today. 200 delegates, a fabulous line-up including Andrew Marr and Sophie Hackford. An all round great day!

We look forward to seeing all our sponsors and delegates at the London Active Investment Summit on Monday. We have fascinating panel discussions with CEOs such as Peter Harrison and Dick Weil, moderated by Merryn Somerset Web, as well as boardrooms with fund managers and keynotes from Eliza Filby and former Prime Minister of the Netherlands Jan Peter Balkenende. An inspirational line-up!

Busy times ahead, as we plan for a raft of upcoming conferences, including BMO GAM, Aviva Investors, Walter Scott, Brewin Dolphin, Active and the Emerging Markets Forum. Autumn looks packed!

MiP are delighted to announce that Roger Urwin from the CFA Institute will be joining us at the London Active Summit 2018.  Roger, one of the three authors of the CFA Institutes 'Investment Firm of the Future' report, will be sharing key findings and industry trends and shifts, before delving into Active Risk through conviction investing and how ESG and Impact investing are establishing themselves in the mainstream.

Works starts this week on our annual Marketing Directors Report - a benchmarking survey that aims to provide reliable data on marketing budgets and resources in our industry. This year we have over 17 of the best known asset management groups taking part and are including a qualitative element on team structures and challenges of managing staff in a digital world.

On Monday we head off on the F&C Investment Trust Schools Roadshow.  The Trust are keen to help youngsters learn how to manage their money.  To that end, the project team are visiting schools around the country delivering workshops on earning money, saving, investing and budgeting.  Look out for our 'why investing matters' bus!

Once again, the Select conference was a great success with delegates rating the overall event 4.8 out of 5.  We had an insightful few days hearing from fabulous managers and external speakers.  Thank you also to the delegates for contributing to CASCAID.

Thank you to everyone who attended the CASCAID Summer Gala Dinner last night. It was a huge success, bringing the whole industry together.  Over 55 fund groups took tables, with each table contributing at least £1,300 to GOSH. M&G's Joffy and GOSH's Tim Johnson delivered fabulous speeches and singer Laura Wright was exceptional. What a night!

The MiP Select conference takes place next week. 10 sponsoring groups, 75 top advisers, dozens of speakers and two networking dinners should make for a fascinating few days.

Our first multi-sponsor event for investment trusts took place at the Ned yesterday. A great success all round, with a fabulous delegate list, incredible panellists (thanks to the likes of Paul Niven, Mark Dampier, Martin Gilbert et al) and insightful proprietary research from the CFA. All topped off by a keynote from Sir Paul Tucker.

We are delighted to have been appointed by OppenheimerFunds as their marketing agency. This US giant is increasing its presence in the UK and MiP will be their on-the-ground marketing partners. They are an impressive, innovative and ambitious team and we are excited to be working with them.

We waved goodbye to the wonderful Kathryn Pinner today. KP has completed a 9-month contract with MiP, helping us deliver a large project for Schroders. We're thrilled that she's starting in her new role at Aberdeen Standard very soon and look forward to working with her in her new capacity. KP is always an absolute pleasure to work with.

Our new Future of Investment Trust (FIT) conference takes place in June. www.mip-fit.com  We're featuring eight leading managers of ITs plus the CFA Society, who are conducting bespoke research specifically for this event. The day ends with a keynote from Sir Paul Tucker.

Registration is now closed for the Select Conference, as it has been so popular with advisers. This 2-day conference updates top-end advisers on the latest thinking in asset management, with presentations from 10 groups. It is always a sell-out event, with advisers travelling from all around the UK to attend.

MiP are on the road with the Power of 3 roadshow again this week. As usual, the fund management teams are travelling far and wide to visit advisers all over the country. A tiring but rewarding few weeks!

The team have just returned from another amazing Brewin Dolphin conference, this time in Scotland. Over 120 wealth managers gathered together to hear from 12 fund management groups. We were wowed by Ruth Davidson over dinner. Thanks to everyone involved; this is one of the highlights of our year.

The 14th Joint Investment Conference has just finished, after two brilliant days at the Four Seasons. JIC is sponsored by 12 asset management groups, many of whom have been involved since the first conference back in 2005. A fabulous event all round, with top-level delegates, fantastic speeches from fund managers and fascinating external speakers.

We are honoured to work with the world’s oldest investment trust – F&C Investment Trust – on their 150th celebrations, which involved various events in March. MiP are lead agency on this project, working on all aspects of marketing including strategy, planning, writing, video, event management and design work. The ongoing project now focuses on link-ups with various universities and schools to help encourage future generations to save and invest. Exciting few months ahead!

We're excited to be working on the F&C Investment Trust Lecture, celebrating the 150th anniversary of the world's oldest collective investment fund. The Lecture and 150 Dinner take place on 21st March at the Guildhall. The Lecture features Yuval Harari, in a rare appearance in the UK, and at dinner we will hear from Alexander Stubb, former Prime Minister of Finland.

We are delighted to announce the date of our first jointly-sponsored conference focusing on investment trusts. The Future of Investment Trusts conference will be held on 14th June at The Ned. More details soon.

The website for the upcoming BNY Mellon UK Investment Conference is now live at www.bnymellonic.com. BNY Mellon have a fresh, exciting format this year, focusing on "15 things that changed the investment world".

The annual Joint Investment Conference, now in its 13th year, will take place in April. See www.jicevents.co.uk for details. This is always a highlight of our year and we can’t wait!

Registration is open for our Select conference, sponsored by 10 investment groups and focusing on top-end advisors. See www.selectconference.co.uk for details.

After the success of Premier Asset Management's events for discretionary clients in London and Scotland, we are looking forward to their Multi-Asset Conferences in Harrogate and London (as well as smaller regional events around the country). See www.premier-multiasset-conferences.com for details.

The Alpha Generators roadshow has now concluded and the team are back at HQ. Once again, a good turn-out around the country and a pleasure working with the fund groups involved.

We were delighted to have been involved in the Janus Henderson conference this month. This event has been run for over a decade and always has a fascinating range of speakers. This year was no exception. The addition of fascinating content from Janus Labs made for a really varied and interesting day.

We loved organising and hosting the CASCAID Gala Dinner on Monday. What a fabulous evening! Huge thanks to the incredible Anastacia for providing a performance for us, what a superstar she is. And we had a message from Richard Branson too. What a night.

Last week saw the Brewin Dolphin Investment Conference, sponsored by 16 fund management groups, and the RSMR event with 20 fund groups. A busy week but great fun all round. This week, as our JIC Autumn conference comes to a close, we’re putting the final preparations in place for the second CASCAID Gala Dinner of the year. 650 people will gather at the Brewery to celebrate our fundraising success during the year. We’re nearly at our £2 million target!

We are delighted to have been appointed as the lead agency to run the FCIT project; celebrating 150 years of the world’s oldest investment trust. This prestigious project will run throughout 2018 with a programme of events, advertising, PR and video campaigns.

The JIC Autumn conference, now in its 12th year, will be held at the Balmoral in November. Registration is open, please see the website for details.

We were thrilled to work on the JLT brand engagement project last week. Simultaneous events in 14 offices in the UK and 2 in India, a new set of brand attributes, engaging literature, desk-drops and office branding – all looked fabulous.

Our recent London Active Investment Summit was very well-received by delegates. 100 fund selectors, advisors, journalists and other influencers attended, to hear from CEOs, fund managers and external speakers Amin Rajan and Pippa Malmgren. Amin’s research paper is now available on mip-active.com.

Whilst the summer months are quieter in terms of events, lots is going on with planning for September onwards. We look forward to our inaugural London Active Investment Summit; a unique event where 8 leading managers get together to discuss the benefits of active management. We’re proud to have CEOs such as Peter Harrison, Anne Richards, Keith Skeoch, Andrew Formica and Keith Wilson in our line-up, as well as fabulous fund managers and a range of external speakers. Things are also busy on our speaker side, as people look for insightful commentators for their conferences. Marketing-wise, we’ve now finished working on the Janus Henderson merger and have won a number of large retained clients and a significant project for one of the UK’s biggest groups. All keeping us very busy - whatever happened to a lazy summer?!

Our annual Select conference for the UK’s top investment advisers is well underway. Interest in investment funds is stronger than ever within the advisory community, as was evidenced when we had to shut registration early due to high-levels of demand for places! Many of the industry's top fund managers will be joined at this event by a diverse range of external speakers covering everything from millennials and teamwork to politics and current affairs.

This week saw over 600 of the industry’s great and good gather together for the CASCAID Gala dinner to help raise funds for Cancer Research UK in 2017. Due to amazing challenges and fund raising that has already occurred this year, together with generosity on the night, we managed to smash through £1m – the target that had originally been set for the end of the year, we've now doubled our target to £2m! A huge thanks to everyone who was involved and look forward to the next gala dinner in December!

The last few week's we have spent gearing up for a busy June. On 5th of June we're hosting or UK and European Equity Forum, our dedicated event for fund selectors in this space. We look forward to hearing from Fredrik Reinfeldt, ex Swedish PM discussing the current economic and political situation in Europe. At the end of June we head to the Four Seasons have our annual Select conference which is aimed at the advisory market and sponsored by 10 of the industry's biggest fund houses. We also have several events going on for CASCAID which you can read more about here. 

This week saw the start of the Power of 3 roadshow with Schroders, BlackRock and J.P. Morgan Asset Management. Heading to various locations around the UK they will be discussing income, higher returns and macro trends. To register please click here. We're also heading to Claridge's for the annual Henderson Institutional conference. This year we'll be hearing from Matthew Syed, a renowned influential thinker and author, he will offer us his views on success and its vital ingredients.   

This week we're heading to Putney for the 163rd Cancer Research UK Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge. We'll be joined by sports presenter, Jill Douglas as our compere for the day whilst we enjoy watching the two teams battle it out. Last year Cambridge won after Oxford's 3-year winning streak, so we're looking forward to a close competition! Good luck to both teams - which blue are you?!... 

Today we're with RSMR at Saddler's Hall in London for their first London conference. We're looking forward to hearing from 19 sponsors on topics including Britain in the new Europe and Multi-asset investing for income. Our moderator for the day is Dominic O'Connell, business presenter for BBC Radio 4 and we look forward to an interesting and insightful day full of discussion and debate. 

We're delighted to announce that in conjunction with CASCAID we have now opened registration for our Walk-and-talk Night Walk: a half marathon around London on Friday 30 June. Please click here to register and join us to raise money for Cancer Research UK.  

This week we're heading to Yorkshire with Premier Asset Management for their annual Multi-Asset Investment Summit. We're looking forward to hearing from their flagship managers about their investment philosophies and external commentators discussing the current macro environment. Over lunch we'll also be hearing from Kamal Ahmed, the BBC's economics editor on his outlook for 2017 and beyond. 

Yesterday we were at the iconic Twickenham stadium running an internal sales conference and dinner. We were joined by guest speaker, Eddie Jones, captain of the England Rugby team. His motivational speech explained how important it is to motivate a business and how, with the right tools, you can channel drive and ambition into creating a winning team. Thank you to Eddie once again for taking the time out of his busy 6 Nations schedule to join us.  

Today we're at The Connaught Hotel for the Premier Investment Conference, hearing from their flagship managers about their investment philosophies. Over lunch we're looking forward to hearing from from Zanny Minton Beddoes, Editor-in-Chief at The Economist on her outlook for 2017. 

Tonight we're heading to Flight Club for the Marketing Mix darts event, in aid of Cancer Research UK as part of our CASCAID initiative. We're looking forward to an evening of competitive socialising and networking! 

This week we're on the road with several of the industry's leading fund houses as they promote the benefits of active investment management at the Alpha Generators roadshow. Yesterday we were in Edinburgh and the rest of the week we will be in Harrogate, Knutsford, Birmingham, Newmarket, Bristol and Exeter. Next week we're in London to host the final event. 

We’re delighted to be back at the Lowry Hotel in Manchester today, for the Old Mutual Wealth conference. Working with Louise Minchin, Sir Stuart Hampson and Dr Steve Peters and looking forward to hearing from MiP’s favourite pianist, Joe Stilgoe this evening.

The first event of the year is now under our belts as we began 2017 with the Henderson Investment Conference. Record numbers of key clients turned up to hear from the CEOs of Janus and Henderson and a variety of fund managers who presented in a punchy TED style. We were joined at the start of the day by Gideon Rachman from the FT and concluded with insightful remarks from Tim Harford, the Undercover Economist. A great start to Q1!

Christmas is fast approaching but we're busy planning for 2017 here at MiP. The CASCAID campaign officially starts as of 1st January, but we have already raised an amazing £26K already! We're looking forward to a year of competitiveness! We launch our 2017 events calendar with the Henderson Global Investors Conference on the 12th of January. They will be discussing their merger in more detail with the CEOs of both firms, as well as some TED-style talks with their flagship fund managers. We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year. 

Yesterday we launched our new CASCAID initiative. We raised over £4,000 to kick start our £1 million target we have set to raise money for Cancer Research UK in 2017. The evening was a resounding success and we'd like to extend a huge thank you to Henderson Global Investors for hosting us. To find out more about how you can get involved and help us reach our target please visit: http://www.cascaidcharity.com/ 

After a great few days up in Scotland for our JIC conference, today we're heading back down to London to get ready for the Kames Capital conference tomorrow. We look forward to an insightful day at the Four Seasons. 

We're looking forward to welcoming delegates to JIC Autumn today at the beautiful Gleneagles hotel in bonny Scotland. We've got a great line up of flagship fund managers from our 10 sponsoring groups and our keynote speaker Matt Frei, Europe Editor and US expert for Channel 4 News, will join us over dinner tomorrow night. 

This week is a new record for MiP as we work with 46 fund groups across a variety of different conferences over the next seven days. It's a great privilege to be operating as an events partner for so many in the asset management industry.

An exciting week coming up next week, with our multi-sponsor events for Brewin Dolphin and RSMR, plus conferences for Aviva Investors and Aberdeen. We’ve booked a host of external commentators including high-profile politicians, news presenters, a former spy, an astronaut, a futurist and even a robot! Meanwhile, the Power of 3 roadshows continue to go well, with good attendance at venues around the country.