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Many of you reading this article on or around its publishing date will no doubt be casting half an eye towards Miami, where the now raft of conferences and events in the alternative investment industry – including our own Uncorrelated Miami event on January 27-29 – will be taking place in the last couple of weeks of the month.
Whether you’re a fund manager, investor/allocator or service provider, these events have something for everyone.
But one thing I’ve observed having made the trip south for the past few years is just how much the fund management community values the in-person connection. Indeed, it seems to me like one of the legacies of the Covid-19 pandemic is that it reinforced the value of face-to-face interaction, and while everyone now seems to use Teams or Zoom or some other video system for calls when in the office (as opposed to just a regular phone call), it’s the live, and not the virtual, efforts that are driving the industry forwards.
That seems like an obvious concept for fund managers and investors. Literally thousands of meetings will take place at these conferences in the coming weeks, and while a sophisticated investor will take several meetings, both ODD and IDD, with a potential manager before writing a check, you have to start somewhere.
But as a service provider, I’ve also noticed that managers are increasingly spending more time with potential vendors on a face to face basis, at least, in the early part of the relationship. And I think that is because many of them are now seeing some of their providers as strategic partners to their business, as opposed to a ‘necessarily evil’ (for want of a better expression).
A couple of different reasons are driving this trend. The first is that some service providers are offering additional, bolt-on services that are complimentary to their core offering and so a broader and deeper conversation is required. And others are forming miniature ecosystems, with referrals becoming an increasingly important consideration for managers when selecting service providers, so managers are spending more time getting to know the person or people at the key providers in whom they are placing their trust in terms of supporting their business more strategically.
But in my opinion, the main reason, as I say above, can be attributed to the legacy of the pandemic. People have realized just how valuable in-person interactions are. While people are being more ‘strategic’ around how they organise their diary – fewer days of meetings, but longer, and fewer instances of only going to one meeting per day, for example – they’re taking it for granted less. And the winners will be those firms that get out of the office and meet their clients face to face, more frequently, and deliver a ‘white glove’ type of service.
I look forward to seeing you in Miami!
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Anthony D. Mascia is Managing Partner at EFSI. Connect with him on LinkedIn here.
EFSI is an independently owned, SOC-1 compliant, full-service fund administration firm. We provide accounting, reporting, administrative, and capital introduction services to a wide range of alternative investment funds including hedge funds, funds of funds, private equity funds, real estate funds, venture capital funds, and family offices. The center of EFSI’s service incorporates resilient technology and accomplished staff, providing clients a tailor-made service with exhaustive transparency. Give us a call today or reach out to our support team online. We look forward to hearing from you soon.