The preliminary agenda is available and registrations are now being taken for Crane's Money Fund Symposium, which will take place June 21-23, 2017 at The Hyatt Regency Atlanta, in Atlanta, Ga. Money Fund Symposium is the largest gathering of money market fund managers and cash investors in the world. Last summer's event in Philadelphia attracted a record 575 attendees, and we expect another robust turnout for our 9th annual event in Atlanta this June. (Money Fund Symposium participants include money fund managers, marketers and servicers, cash investors, money market securities dealers, issuers, and regulators.) Visit the MF Symposium website at www.moneyfundsymposium.com) for more details. Registration for attendees is $750, and discounted hotel reservations are also now available. We review the agenda and conference details below. (E-mail us at info@cranedata.com to request the full brochure, or click here to download.) We also review the rest of Crane Data's 2017 conference calendar, including next month's Bond Fund Symposium.
Our June 21 Opening (afternoon) Agenda kicks off with "Welcome to Money Fund Symposium 2017" from Peter Crane, President & Publisher of Crane Data. Then our keynote talk will feature Invesco President & Chief Executive Officer Martin Flanagan, who will discuss "The Elevation of Money Market Funds." The rest of the Day One agenda includes: "Private Money Funds, SMAs and ETFs," with Deborah Cunningham of Federated Investors, Rich Mejzak of BlackRock, and Andrew Wittkop of PIMCO; "Corporate Investment & Issuance Issues," moderated by Treasury Strategies' Tony Carfang, and featuring Jeff Glenzer of the Association for Financial Professionals, a speaker from Coca-Cola and another Corporate Investor; "Major Money Fund Issues 2017," moderated by Peter Crane and featuring John Donohue of J.P. Morgan AM, Dave Fishman of Goldman Sachs, and Tracy Hopkins of BNY Mellon Cash Investment Strategies. (The opening day's refreshments will be sponsored by Fidelity and the opening evening's reception will be sponsored by Bank of America Merrill Lynch.)
Day 2 of Money Fund Symposium 2017 begins with "State of the Money Fund Industry" with Peter Crane and Alex Roever of J.P. Morgan Securities. This is followed by "Senior Portfolio Manager Perspectives" panel, which includes Kevin Gaffney of Fidelity Investments, Jeff Plotnik of First American Funds, and Rob Sabatino of UBS Asset Mgmt; a session on "Government and Treasury Money Fund Issues," featuring Mike Bird of Wells Fargo Funds and another PM to be named later; and, a "Muni & Tax Exempt Money Fund Update" with Justin Schwartz of Vanguard and John Vetter of Fidelity. (Day 2's breakfast is sponsored by BlackRock and the coffee break is sponsored by Wells Fargo.)
The Afternoon of Day 2 (after a Dreyfus-sponsored lunch) features: a "Dealer & Issuer Panel; Looking at Supply," moderated by Laurie Brignac of Invesco and including Stewart Cutler of Barclays, John Kodweis of J.P. Morgan Securities and Jean-Luc Sinniger of Citi Global Markets; a "Ratings Agency Roundtable: Criteria, Risks, NAVs," with Robert Callagy from Moody's Investors Service, Greg Fayvilevich from Fitch Ratings, and Michael Masih from S&P Global Ratings; a segment on "MMFs in Ireland, France & China," with Reyer Kooy of IMMFA, Jonathan Curry of HSBC Global AM, and Alastair Sewell of Fitch Ratings; and a presentation on "Brokerage Sweep Options & Issues" with Ted Hamilton of Promontory Interfinancial and Sunil Kothapalli of Wells Fargo Advisors. (The Day 2 break is sponsored by Invesco and the reception is sponsored by Barclays.)
The third day of Symposium (after a Federated-sponsored breakfast) features the sessions: "Strategists Speak '17: Rising Rates & Fed RRP," presented by Mark Cabana of Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Garret Sloan of Wells Fargo Securities, and Rob Zambarano of Guggenheim Securities; a "Treasury & Agency Supply Outlook, with John Dolan of the U.S. Dept. of Treasury and Dave Messerly of the FHLBanks - Office of Finance; and, the "Pros & Cons of Ultra-Short Bond Funds," with Michael Morin of Fidelity Investments and Morten Olsen of Northern Trust AM. (The coffee break is sponsored by First American Funds.) Finally, the last session, entitled, "Money Fund Trading, Technology & Data," is an optional lunch workshop with Peter Crane presenting on the latest money fund information tools, Michael Berkowitz of Citi discussing the portal market, and James Morris of Investortools reviewing Rule 2a-7 compliance and trading software.
We hope you'll join us in Atlanta this June! (We'd also like to encourage attendees, speakers and sponsors to register early and make hotel reservations in coming weeks.) Note that a few of our speakers have yet to confirm their participation, and the agenda is still in the process of being finalized.
In other conference news, final preparations are being made for the inaugural Crane's Bond Fund Symposium, which will be held next month (March 23-24) in Boston. (Click here to see the PDF agenda.) Bond Fund Symposium, the first conference devoted entirely to bond mutual funds, will bring together bond fund managers, marketers, and professionals with fixed-income issuers, investors and service providers. The vast majority of the content will be aimed at the growing ultra-short and conservative ultra-short bond fund marketplace. (As a reminder, please register for BFS and make hotel reservations for BFS soon if you plan on attending!)
Crane Data, which recently celebrated the second anniversary of its Bond Fund Intelligence publication and BFI XLS bond fund information service and benchmarks, continues to expand its fixed income fund offerings with the launch of our first conference in this space. Bond Fund Symposium will offer fixed-income portfolio managers, bond investors, issuers, dealers and service providers a concentrated and affordable educational experience, as well as an excellent and informal networking venue. Registration for Bond Fund Symposium is $500; exhibit space is $2,000 (includes 2 tickets); and sponsorship opportunities are $3K, $4K, $5K and $6K. (Complimentary tickets are available for corporate investors too; contact Pete for details.) Our mission is to deliver the best possible conference content at an affordable price to bond fund professionals and investors.
Finally, Crane's 5th annual "offshore" money fund event, European Money Fund Symposium, will be held in Paris, France, September 25-26, 2017. This website (www.euromfs.com) will be updated with the 2017 information soon. (Contact us to inquire about sponsoring or speaking.) Our next Money Fund University "basic training" event is also tentatively scheduled for Jan. 19-20, 2018, in Providence, RI. Watch www.cranedata.com for more details on these events, and please let us know if you have any questions or feedback on our growing conference business.
