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Who Attends Family Office Conferences?

Last week I had the chance to comment on a recent Family Office Conference that I attended and from that post I had a few responses that I do feel I need to address as they bring up some good points and it is one that is a constant concern.
The first comment was: 
"Hi DJ. I have attended a family office conference, and made it a point to meet a lot of people, but the only people I met were other people like me, who were looking to meet family offices. Everyone there was a service provider of some kind. The only identifiable family office person I encountered was one of the speakers, who was of course mobbed when his panel was over. I decided that there are better ways to meet family offices than competing with 500 other people at a conference, namely going through personal connections."
another comment I received was:
"Attending a Family Office Conference definitely requires a proactive game plan, however you have to weed out pretenders from the contender's - and there are many people pitching their deals."
These points that were brought up are very true.   Do you wish there were more family offices that were present? Yes!  Are some people holding themselves out as Family Offices and are not?  Yes!  So what do you do about this?
As there are many service providers that attend these conferences, it does depend on the conference that you are attending and who put on the event. Some conferences are for sure better than others.  The only way to find out which conferences are the best ones to attend you need to either, 1) find out by talking to a seasoned conference attender what they suggest or, 2)  go to the different conferences yourself for you to make your own decision.   For me and my Family Office I am doing both.  I have attended an IMN Conference, a Wilson Conference, an Opal Conference and will be attending the FOA Conference and a few others later in the year. One thing you must understand is that by making that effort, that alone shows your commitment to the Family Office space - which to Family Offices are very important.
As for those that hold themselves out to be a Family Office when they are not.......well they are shooting themselves in the foot from the start and the Family Office community is small.  It won't take long until the truth comes out so if you are taking a long term perspective then this should be avoided at all costs. Are there some groups that represent a Family Office AND another company or Fund.......yes - but what I have found is that they disclose that upfront and are very clear which hat they are wearing when talking with you.
It is understandable that the conference business is just that......a business. Because of that they need to have sponsors attend to help pay for the event and to make a profit.  There are conferences that are for Family Office's only and if you are a Family Office these should be highly considered.  There are also conferences that limit the amount of time or effort that sponsors is supposed to exert at the conference and once again take this into consideration.   And last but not least see if you can get a list of who is attending.  This can help you make a decision on if you should attend or not.
In the end if you do go to a Family Office conference be sure to make the most out of any conference that you do attend - and of course nothing is better than a referral!

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