Michael Portillo’s keynote address was one of the highlights of The 2013 Finance Director’s Forum from 9th – 12th October

Paul Hooper-Keeley & Michael Portillo

Well done to Richmond Events for making this year’s FD’s Forum arguably the best yet.

Boarding the Aurora at 2pm on Wednesday 9^th, we were efficiently checked in to our cabins where a full itinerary for the event was waiting. As a speaker at one of the events, my first task was to visit the events office to confirm the technical elements before then joining my colleague FDs for afternoon tea, welcome on board words from Mark Rayner and our muster drill (maritime law).

We were joined by the Marketing, IT and Communication Director delegates in the theatre for the first keynote speech of the event – the very entertaining Michael Portillo. Due to Chatham House Rules I won’t comment too much as to the content of his speech, entitled ‘Britain and Europe – coalition and rupture’ – suffice to say that it was very well received by the audience. He did make the point that he sees himself as an entertainer these days and that he has no desire to return to the political fold; enjoying the freedom he now has to voice his opinion as he sees fit.

David Smith & Paul Hooper-Keeley

My session, the ‘Words From The Wise’ panel was first up after breakfast on Thursday. Facilitated by David Smith, Economics Editor of The Sunday Times, my colleagues on the panel were Mark Freebairn (Partner at head-hunter Odgers Berndtson), Dave Mottram (FD at Siemens plc) and Richard Turner (CFO of Abu Dhabi Ship Building). It proved to be an interesting session – like Question Time for FDs.

The schedule I had then featured Mark Freebairn’s ‘Rising to the top – the skills to take you there’ presentation followed by David Smith’s ‘Global Economic Outlook’. All delegates came together for the next keynote session, ‘Optimising human performance: learn how to operate by understanding your mind’. This lively and fast-paced keynote was given by Dr Steve Peters who worked with the Team GB Cycling team leading up to London 2012 (and currently works with Ronnie O’Sullivan) and introduced us all to our ‘Inner Chimp’.

Post lunch we were treated to the corporate benefits of The Cheese & Wine Company by founder Steve Parker in a blind tasting session called England versus France. Steve is very knowledgeable on his subject and this was a really good session. We then had a session entitled ‘Develop Mental Toughness – the winning mind-set of champions’ before going off to undertake several supplier meetings on a one-to-one basis.

Paul Hooper-Keeley & Phil Tufnell

Friday’s sessions for me included ‘Being remarkable starts with me – how to inspire those around you’, ‘Pricing Policy Performance’ and Andrew Sawers discussion group on ‘The requirements and attributes of a modern FD’. In the middle of several supplier meetings was the days’ keynote address from Cranfield University’s Professor Stephen Carver, ‘How not to make a catastrophe out of a crisis’, which was very well presented and entertaining. The final night’s dinner was followed by ‘An audience with Phil Tufnell’, which was hosted by sports presenter Alison Mitchell and was a very lively end to the evening indeed.

Overall this was a very intensive 3-day forum, running from approx. 7.30am to 11.00pm with very little free-time, which is exactly how it should be to maximise the return on those precious few days out of the office. Well done Richmond Events and it will be interesting to see how they plan to top this in 2014.