I’m staring at the screen, unsure of how to start this post. We just wrapped up the third Future Proof Festival, and the feelings I’m feeling are hard to put into words.
I mean, look what we created. FutureProof has cemented itself as the greatest event in the history of wealth management.
When I saw the photo above, I had to fight back tears because I was in the middle of a sea of people. Otherwise, I’d have had to grab a tissue.
We had an idea that there was a better way to do financial conferences. And then we executed on our vision.
Josh, Barry, and I are very visible as the faces of this event, but Matt Middleton and his entire team at FutureProof deserve the lion’s share of the credit. It’s hard to overstate what goes into producing an event like this. It doesn’t just come together. Planning for more than 4,000 people, 30,000 meetings, food trucks, and live musical acts is an enormous lift. If they made it look easy, it’s only because they’re the best in the world.
Back in the day, people went to conferences to learn about what was going on in the industry. But now that you can hear anybody on a podcast, events had to evolve to go beyond just content. We did that in spades, but we also had some killer speakers. Dan Ives, Tom Lee, and Joe and Tracy, just to name a few. Josh and I did a TCAF episode with Peter Mallouk, who I consider to be the best entrepreneur in our industry.
Creative Planning, under Peter’s leadership, has been the most successful RIA in all of wealth management.
Ben and I did our origin story of how we met each other, how he got to Ritholtz Wealth Management, and why we started a podcast.
This year felt different than the first two events. First of all, the scale of this thing is just wild. I timed myself walking the distance of the festival, and it took almost five minutes to go from front to back. Every panel was packed. No empty seats, and rows of people standing. The reactions on social media are overwhelming. Two days removed from the festival and the posts keep coming.
What made this event so special were the people who showed up. If you were there, I can’t thank you enough for coming out. If you weren’t there, put it on your calendar. September 7-10 in Huntington Beach.
And if you can’t wait that long, we’ve got you covered. Six months from now, we’ll be in Miami celebrating our inaugural FutureProof CityWide. It’s going to be a banger.
Thank you again to the FutureProof team, my team at RWM, the sponsors, speakers, and attendees. We’re all part of something very special. See everyone there next year.
