“Marcus Evans Summits have the ideal format for managers and allocators to meet and interact. We were exposed to a wide variety of interesting investment strategies and had multiple interactions with the managers. We have made two investments and have perhaps a dozen in the pipeline,” said Archan Basu, Chief Investment Officer, Altar Rock LLC, a speaker and delegate at the Marcus Evans Private Wealth Management Summit.
We were introduced to some interesting managers with unusual strategies, and had enough time to assess their potential. Our investment philosophy is to be open to every asset sub-class, vehicle and structure, so this was the ideal format for us.
After the Summit, one of the managers reached out to us with a new opportunistic idea. Things progressed quickly and within three months we had invested a material amount on behalf of our clients. We also invested in another fund and have identified roughly 12 more prospective managers through our meetings. At least half have a good chance of leading to an allocation.
Managers apart, the content at these meetings is also of high quality. The event producer has excellent intuition for which topics and panels will spark most interest. Because of her I’ve enjoyed all my marcus evans panels, especially one that we assembled and that proved rather popular.
In one or two cases I had a prior interaction many years earlier. In most cases we had no direct contact before the Summit and would not have met on our own.
Most likely no. Although we are open to ideas, like every allocator, we are bombarded with unsolicited phone calls and emails from managers. Too many even for someone open to ideas. They typically do not result in fruitful conversations.
What differentiates the marcus evans approach is the format of the one-on-one meetings and the screening that happens beforehand. Having the opportunity for multiple interactions with the same managers also helps. You cannot have that level of conversation across an email solicitation or even over a handful of calls. It is one thing to know a manager and be aware of their reputation, and another thing to develop a shared operating history.
The marcus evans’ format accelerates a shared operating history. This makes tremendous sense for managers and allocators.
They were the founders and principals of the firms, not the salespeople. We talked to the individuals who were best suited to take our questions, which resulted in very focused conversations.
Most conferences and marketplaces I get invited to are organized and hosted by managers. They are often big name firms with tens of billions to trillions under management, and strategies I am already familiar with. There’s relatively very little new information for me to learn.
With marcus evans events, the venue and level of speakers is very high. They attract the type of managers I don’t easily find elsewhere. That is very appealing to me. Everything is well thought out and it is obvious that marcus evans has been organizing events for a long time. Our marcus evans manager repeatedly demonstrated to us that he has a very good understanding of the industry, our needs and the characteristics of various managers. He has figured out what type of people we want to meet. When he suggests a meeting, I almost always say yes.
Find out more about the upcoming Private Wealth Management Summit.