7 Takeaways from the T3 Enterprise Conference

There’s something about Vegas that happens in no other city, even New York. A well-known phenomenon that gives this vibrant Strip, a life of its own, that usually goes unnoticed.

Arriving at 1:30 am, had I checked into the Cosmopolitan and gone straight to my room, I would have not given it a second thought. From the minute I hopped out of my Uber and took my first breathe of Vegas air I had no concept of time. Not a clock in sight, in the hotel nor the restaurant, not even an alarm clock on my nightstand.

I found a seat at the bar and ordered my favorite comfort food, a Caesar salad with a nice, bouquet of Merlot—the perfect recipe for a good night’s sleep before covering an action-packed program.

The venue, a high-tech, high-touch, digital-by-design hotel, was the perfect backdrop for Joel Bruckenstein’s T3 Enterprise Conference—a gathering of who’s who among some of the smartest tech titans and thought-leaders in the industry as well as heads of state like CEOs, CTOs, COOs, and CCOs of large RIAs, broker/dealers, and OSJ branch offices.

Three consecutive days of digital solutions was less pressure than throwing the dice at the Craps Table. In the spirit of Vegas, here is what I’m calling the T3 Lucky Seven Takeaways:

  • All Bets Are On . This one goes to Professor Isaac Ben-Israel, Head of Blavatnik Interdisciplinary Cyber Research of Tel-Aviv University and a former Major General of the Israel Defense Forces. You could hear a pin drop during Dr. Ben-Israel’s stunning keynote presentation on the “The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Financial Advisory” and his explanation of the False Dogmas of Cybersecurity. Dr. Ben-Israel encouraged us to get rid of our false dogmas that drive an understanding of what cybersecurity is and adopt a new model: 1. Cybersecurity is not only about information, it’s about creating physical damage (controlled by computers) and 2. You don’t need the Internet. You can watch Dr. Ben-Israel on YouTube explain these dogmas in depth from a talk he gave in 2016.
  • Double-Down . I think of Brian Hamburger, JD, CRCP, founder of MarketCounsel and the Hamburger Law Firm. Brian immediately pounced on the breaking news of Morgan Stanley dumping their broker recruiting protocol. I interpreted this to mean their exit from the protocol may be used as leverage to dissuade its brokers from moving to a new firm. Brian then delivered a great talk, appropriate Vegas-ish deck titled, “Unlucky Seven Ways Advisors Go Sideways.” One of his main points went something like this–an advisory firm without succession is the most perishable good you’ll ever come across. He then took us down the trail of what immediately happens to a firm with the loss of a founder and no plan in place. You can get more information on The MarketCounsel Summit , now in its’ 10 th year, December 4-7, 2017.
  • Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner. I’m going to give this to Ron Carson and his interview with Joel Bruckenstein. Ron, freshly back from SU – Singularity University, discussed how the workplace is going to drastically change to be more task-driven, with virtual workers and specialists who will perform their jobs by exact specification. He also talked about the role of AI (Artificial Intelligence) in providing more personalized, automated experiences and asked us to Google “Saudi Arabia Citizen” The overarching theme of Ron’s talk had everything to do with keeping up, integrating and adapting to tech, the client experience and marketing ops, such as Facebook’s Ads retargeting feature. Firms unable to adapt will surely have their Kodak moment (i.e. Blockbuster). You can get more information about Ron Carson and Carson Group Partners here https://www.carsoninstitutional.com/

  • All In . Bob Curtis, founder and CEO of PIEtech, MoneyGuide Pro deserves this insight. Bob delivered a provocative talk around ‘what changes and what doesn’t change’ in a rapidly changing, technological environment. Core business issues, such as the challenge of getting technology melded with your organization, are among the things that don’t change. Where some advisors may be slow to change and adapt, their biggest opportunity to deliver advice and not just data through the lens of the Advice Value Matrix, what Bob called ‘spending more time in Quad IV’. Along those lines, Bob created MoneyGuidFlex, as vehicle for financial advisors to move up the value chain in small increments. You can learn about MoneyGuidePro here https://www.moneyguidepro.com/ifa/
  • The House Always Wins. Definitely Bob Veres, editor and publisher of Inside Information, an information service for financial advisors. In his session, “The Next Inflection” – Bob discussed the impact of rapid technology changes, disruption, and the need for firms to keep up and change on a dime. He also brought attention to Crowdfunding and talked about the Internet as a “Super Conductor of Capital” enabling consumers to get funding directly instead of traditional lending arrangements. In discussing the value prop for Broker Dealers, it is in close relationships and reinvesting in your people with practice management consulting and what Bob called the virtuous circle. For more information on Bob Veres and Inside Information go to http://www.bobveres.com/.
  • Hit Me. This category goes to all of the tech platforms in the T3 Tech Lab Experience: Advicent, Advizr, eMoney Advisor LLC, MoneyGuidePro®, created by PIEtech, Inc., RetireUp, cleverDome Solutions, Financial Computer, Laserfiche, Riskalyze, and Seismic. Demo after demo helped me to visualize each offering and how they can be used to do such things as: streamline planning efficiency, drastically increase the number of financial plans delivered by RIAs, create an exceptional client experience and planning experience, digitize lower costs through organizing content, automating processes, and creating new account opening work flows, etc. The solutions are there, I encourage you to do a demo yourself.
  • Go Big or Go Home. I have to give this to Joel Bruckenstein himself who helped Aaron Spradlin, founder and CEO of cleverDome, inc.™ bring this vision to life to the financial advisory community. cleverDome is an Arizona Benefit Corporation employing Military Grade Security to form a secure private network solution to protect confidential consumer information in the cloud. The cleverDome solution, powered by NetFoundry™ was introduced at a special lunch press briefing at the T3 Enterprise Conference and explained as a first of its kind, moral imperative to protect consumer data using a Software Defined Perimeter and endpoint protection. Aaron also talked about cleverDome’s first use case, “Under the Dome” with launch participants United Planners Financial Services, L.P., Redtail Technology, Inc., Orion Advisor Services, LLC, Riskalyze Inc., Entrada Inc., and custodian TD Ameritrade Institutional. The announcement can be found here . You can get more information on T3 Technology Tools for Today Enterprise and upcoming Advisor Conference, February 6-9, 2018 by visiting http://www.technologytoolsfortoday.com/advisor-conference.html

  • Related: Why Simplified Lead Generation Can Work for Advisors

    If there’s one lesson Vegas has taught us, it’s not that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but it’s to never sleep when it comes to the future of your business.