Broadcaster and media commentator Brian Tora opened the proceedings with an overview of the current global situation – not an easy call, actually, at a time when so much big-picture politics seems to be going on.
The theme of the seminar was the mitigation of tax liabilities and the rise of Enterprise Investment Schemes (EIS) and Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs). JM Finn & Co’s Andrew Banks, one of ten speakers, ran through the use of Alternative Investment Market (AIM) strategies to minimise tax liabilities through the Business Property Relief (BPR) allowances.
Following a packed agenda, over lunch there was an inspiring and very entertaining address by the legendary Gerald Davies, of British and Irish Lions rugby fame and consultant to JM Finn & Co, who gave us some properly no-holds-barred thoughts about what it takes to make a national team stick together, and why we still have a few things to learn from the All-Blacks approach. It’s about single-mindedness, apparently, and a willingness to be modest, and to subsume your personality entirely to the team as an entity.