In a recent special edition video, VettaFi’s Jon Fee and Dave Nadig sat down with one another to answer what they think advisors should do to make the most out of Exchange 2024. The duo explores a plethora of different topics to try to answer this question. The pair also provides insight into what investors and advisors can anticipate from the event.
Exchange 2024
Jon Fee: Dave Nadig, financial futurist for VettaFi. Thank you for joining me. It’s time to talk about Exchange. We’re on the road to Exchange. It’s 50 days out. I am so pumped. Five oh, I’m so pumped to think that we’re getting the investment community back together again. February 11th through the 14th down in Miami Beach, a beautiful destination, especially that time of year.
Dave, what has got you excited about Exchange 2024?
Dave Nadig: Well, I think we have to acknowledge that this is a very different year. We’re going to be sitting here in February in Florida. It’s going to be very different than when we sat in Florida in February last year. We are going to be in the middle of an election cycle, literally. It’s going to be just as primaries are kicking off.
That tends to create lots of, you know, news, lots of furor, lots of excitement, lots of concern. We know that that’s true. We’ve got geopolitical concerns. People are worried about inflation. We’ve had a great year in the market after a pretty bad year, the year before. People are going to be worried about that carrying through as well. So what we’ve done is really create an agenda that addresses two different buckets in one bucket.
We’re going to be having real conversations. So, you know, we’re talking about politics. We’re getting Amy Walter from the Cook Political Report to really handicap the election for us. Help us understand what’s going on when it comes to geopolitics. We’ve got Richard HAASS from the Council on Foreign Relations talking to us about what’s going on in the Middle East, in Europe, and everywhere else, frankly.
So I’m excited that we’re going to have those real conversations about real issues affecting customers and clients and advisors every single day. I think that that will give advisors good talking points and a good baseline for understanding the world of 2024. But at the same time, I think we have to recognize that advisors have a job to do.
I would say the other half of the agenda is really about, for lack of a better term, human-centered advice. So that phrase comes from Neil Baze, who’s from Shaping Wealth. He’s going to be on stage giving a fantastic keynote on this idea of human-centered advice and what it means to really be in a relationship with your clients.
And we’re going to follow that up with great sessions from Carson Coaching. We’re really going to lay out a way to help understand what your DNA is as an advisor. And then we’ve got separate sessions run by advisors on little corners of the practice that I think have become even more important things like succession planning, and working with diverse communities.
So, you know, you put those two things together. I think this is going to be hard to steal from the name of the conference, the exchange of ideas here. We’re really going to deliver on this year.
Jon Fee: Yeah, I think you’re right, Dave. You actually already answered my second question, which is how is the conference going to be different in 2024 versus earlier this year in 2023. And I love your answer. The world is different. So get ready for content to be different, the agenda to be different. I want to throw one more question actually before we before we cut.
I know you go to a lot of conferences. You’re usually up on stage speaking and you’re so good at it. How do you prep for a conference? Whether you’re an advisor or maybe you’re an issuer, but you’re going to a conference like how do you get yourself ready to get the most out of a conference?
Dave Nadig: Well, I mean, a couple of things. First, I sort of focus like, you know, a reporter and the who, what, where, when, and how and why and all those things. I try to make sure that I have a plan of attack. Now, it’s easy when you’re speaking at a conference because somebody is going to tell you when you have to be aware of those things.
But if you’re showing up at an event and you’re trying to get the most out of it. Looking at that agenda, literally, I would make a paper one in my own notebook saying, okay, I want to be here on Tuesday at two and then at three. There are two things I might want to do. I’ll check in on those so that I have a map because I think it’s very easy at a big conference with 2,000 people to both get metaphorically and literally lost about where you want to be next.
So that’s the what and the where I think is really important. And then the other one is the who. I always make sure that I take a look at not just who’s speaking, but, you know, asking around who else is going, asking folks in my firm if they’re going folks that I may know from previous conferences and colleagues across the country, and making sure that I find the time ahead of time plan that out so that if there’s a guy I want to hang out with, or somebody I want to meet for the first time, I’m not relying on serendipity. I’m relying on making sure I’m at the bar at 5:30 like I said I was going to be.
Jon Fee: Yeah, I like that. The who’s so important for me because it’s getting harder and harder to connect with people in real life these days because everyone’s got so accustomed to doing, frankly, what we’re doing right now. Just virtual conversations. I actually set goals for myself. Dave, I always say like at least every day that I’m at a conference, I’m going to meet 12 to 20 people and I’m there for the whole time and I’ll walk around to the booth and I’ll just stop someone randomly, and ask them, you know, “What are you excited to hear about today?”
Because what I typically get from that is a whole new perspective on how I should be spending my time. And it gets me to break from my norm of what I would be doing at a conference. Dave, the agenda sounds awesome. I know Gundlach is also there, so I’m expecting a lot of fixed income from the king of bonds.
Thank you so much for the time today. I look forward to seeing you and so many folks, especially the advisor community down in Miami Beach from February 11th through the 14th. Dave, I will see you there.