FundForum International showcases gender balance

Jenny Adams, Head of Innovation, Informa Connect, London

Fund Forum is the world’s number one global investment management event. I’m proud to say that this year saw the highest ever number of women attending, and the highest number of influential women and rising stars on the podium.

In an industry that’s typically male-dominated, one quarter of our attendees were women and we worked hard to ensure that a wide range of voices were heard. Three out of four keynote speakers were women, as were almost 30% of speakers as a whole. We also hosted our first ever Diversity Project workshop with support from Dame Helena Morrissey, the Project’s Chairman.

And to make sure that the future is even more representative, our Rising Stars programme, which highlights young innovators as speakers, was 50% female. Whilst there’s a distance to go for full gender parity in finance, we think this year was a great step in the right direction.

“For our products to remain relevant for the next generation of customers, we must push diversity hard at every turn, changing established thinking.”