ETF industry insiders and advisors are converging on Southern Florida this week, as broker-dealer execs are converging on Northern California.

Valerie Brown Advisor Group Executive Chairman

Last night Matt Hougan and his team at Informa kicked off the 10th annual Inside ETFs conference last night with an NFC-conference-title-game themed welcome reception at the Diplomat Beach Resort in Hollywood (outside Miami), with TVs playing the Atlanta Falcons - Green Bay Packers game and an attempt at an "authentic tailgate feel". They expect more than 2,200 guests for the conference, with sessions beginning this morning and wrapping up at lunch time on Wednesday.

The conference also features: the fourth annual Women in ETFs breakfast this morning; a closing night reception (Tuesday night) featuring the music of Tito Puente Jr; and a closing night (Tuesday night), 10th anniversary after hours party, at Hyde Beach Kitchen & Cocktails, featuring recording artist Son Little. The FON Network even gathered informally last night at a nearby sports bar.

Big sponsors of the conference this year include: Charles Schwab Investment Management; FactSet; First Trust; BlackRock's iShares; MSCI; Nasdaq; Invesco's PowerShares; S&P Dow Jones Indices; and State Street Global Advisors (SSgA).

Speakers scheduled to take the main stage this time at Inside ETFs include: Cameron Brandt, director of research at EPFR Global; Chris Concannon, CEO of Bats Global Markets; Steve Cucchiaro, president and chief investment officer of 3EDGE Asset Management; Bob Doll, senior PM and chief equity strategist at Nuveen; Tom Dorsey, founder of Dorsey Wright & Associates; Hougan, CEO of Inside ETFs; Larry Kudlow, senior contributor to CNBC; Bruce Lavine, CEO of 55 Capital Partners; Akhil Lodha, co-founder and CEO of StratiFi; Frank Luntz, CEO and founder of Luntz Global Partners; John Mauldin, chairman of Mauldin Economics; Dave Nadig, CEO of former Inside ETFs sister company ETF.com (now part of Bats); Patrick O'Connor, head of global ETFs at Franklin Templeton; Kevin O'Leary, chairman and founder of O'Shares Investments; Tom Rampulla, Vanguard's head of U.S. financial intermediaries and managing director of its financial advisor services division, as well as chair of the conference; Jim Ross, chairman of global SPDR business at SSgA; Denise Shull, founder and CEO of the Rethink Group; Jaipal Tuttle, head of volatility and tail risk overlay risk at StratiFi; and Tim Urban, creator of Wait But Why.

Meanwhile, this afternoon in San Francisco the Financial Services Institute's (FSI's) FSI OneVoice 2017 conference at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis. Big sponsors this time around include: Capital Group's American Funds; Brinker Capital; Broadridge; Envestnet; and BNY Mellon's Pershing.

Featured speakers scheduled to take the FSI OneVoice mainstage include: Valerie Brown, executive chairman of Advisor Group; Ann Compton, White House correspondent for ABC News; Robert Cook, president and CEO of Finra; Chris Flynt, president and CEO of ProEquities; Vikram Masharamani, author; and Wayne Talleur, president of Madison Avenue Securities. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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