Alistair Darling & Sir Clive Woodward gave keynote presentations at the CFO Agenda in London yesterday

Paul Hooper-Keeley with former Chancellor, Alistair Darling, at the CFO Agenda

Yesterday's CFO Agenda conference, organised by Financial Director Magazine, was a thoroughly interesting day that certainly held the interest of the large number of finance professionals in attendance.


Sir Clive Woodward opened the day with an excellent keynote that went through his T-Cup methodology (Thinking Correctly Under Pressure) amongst others, and was very well received.


There were excellent panel sessions on effective change management, penions, corporate culture, the apprenticeship levy, the digital finance function and the controversial subject of tax avoidance v tax planning.


Of course the elephant in the room was Brexit and the domino effect this appears to be having on both the markets and political parties in the UK, and this was tackled by an excleent panel on EU Membership followed by a keynote by former Chancellor, Alistair Darling. He was both honest and pragmatic about the position the nation now finds itself in, highlighting the fact that the 'Leave' camp appear to have no plan in place as they clearly didn't expect to win the referendum. He then undertook a lenghty Q&A session and stopped around afterwards to answer questions on a one-to-one basis.


A very rewarding and well organised day and I would highly recommend that you attend future events that Financial Director Magazine organise.