It's a wrap: Future Ready Christchurch

Future Ready Christchurch kicked off on Tuesday 21 February 2023 at the Christchurch Town Hall. Here's a summary of all the key highlights.

We would like to acknowledge all of our generous sponsors, speakers and MCs, and members of the FSC Professional Advice Committee for your hard work in helping bringing this event to life.

If you missed the Christchurch Summit, you can still join us in Wellington (14 March 2023) and Auckland (15 March 2023). Find out more and register.

Morning

Political keynotes and a conversation with the regulator

We kicked off the Summit with a view of what's coming up for the industry, reflections on the value of advice, and a discussion on how to get your business future ready. We heard addresses that were specially pre-recorded for the Christchurch event from:

• Hon Dr Duncan Webb, Minister for Commerce and Consumer Affairs
• Andrew Bayly, MP for Port Waikato and National Party Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs

Then MC Trisha Edmonds facilitated a kōrero with Michael Hewes, Anita Frazer and Derek Grantham from the Financial Markets Authority (FMA). Michael touched on record-keeping and cyber resilience as two areas advisers could focus on. 

Wellbeing tips + getting your business future ready

Katie Hunter from AIA Vitality left us with three wellbeing tips to take away:

1. Take time each day to create a list at the end of each day of 3-5 things to do the following day.
2. Block out time in your diary for you, whether that's 30mins on the couch doing nothing, hitting the gym, or spending time with friends.
3. Focus on your breathing. 

Next, we ran a panel discussion with Ben Brinkerhoff (Consilium), Melanie Purdie (Compliance Refinery) , Mark Banicevich (Partners Life) and Kellie Berry (Mind Coach Academy) who spoke with FSC CEO Richard Klipin about the challenges of managing teams, recruitment and getting the most out of teams, concluding with their views on the future of advice.

Midday

Trailblazers panel

The FSC's Head of Content Clarissa Hirst facilitated a panel discussion between Kimberley Stevenson, Tom Stanley and Stefan Offen - three young advisers with fresh perspectives to share. The audience gained insights into their approach to financial advice, embracing of the digital space, how their previous careers had influenced giving financial advice, starting a new business, and more.

Meet the Professionals

Our audience broke into small groups for the Meet the Professionals sessions on a range of topics, including:

• Building and developing diversity in financial advice
• Business continuity and cyber security
• Building communities, social justice and leadership
• Growing financial literacy for Māori in Aotearoa 
• Social media 101 - building my brand on social
• Locums - who will manage my practice when I'm not there?
• and more!

Afternoon 

Masterclass

Life after Licensing: Future Ready your business

This interactive, practical session was specifically designed for small and medium sized FAPs to start businesses thinking and getting processes in place to take the strain out of yearly regulatory returns, maintain licensing requirements and be future ready.