For UK institutional investors, there is a standout conference on the events calendar each year – the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association’s Investment Conference.
The Edinburgh convention is the largest gathering of institutional investors in the UK and, this year, takes place between 6 – 8 June at the EICC.
Edward Bogira is the PLSA’s head of digital and communications. He has the task of promoting the event while simultaneously juggling the organisation’s objectives as laid out in its three-year strategy.
Core to these goals is improving pensions policy. In 2023, that is a particularly busy task with an extraordinary number of issues to be covered.
“Improving pensions adequacy is the main strategic aim,” Bogira explains. “There are more practical or regulatory aims in the areas of pensions dashboards, defined benefit funding, responsible investment, local government pension scheme issues, defined contribution (DC) decumulation and value for money.”
The event programme for this year’s investment conference is a reflection of areas where members are seeking information, the macroeconomic challenges facing business members, and the government’s regulatory agenda which continues to provide themes for exploration.
The convention always pulls in the big names and this year is no different, with City minister Andrew Griffith delivering a plenary in the main auditorium on day one and political broadcaster Robert Peston wrapping things up on the final day.
The agenda is no accident, of course. The association has been working to build attendance levels back to the numbers seen before the pandemic. Bogira says that the PLSA uses its events to bring the industry together behind the organisation’s policy, so it’s important to get the content mix right and ensure that delegates are of the right profile.
“Engaging our members effectively, so we maintain our very high retention rates, and making sure we understand how the market is changing and what they need, is obviously critical for a membership body,” he says.
The PLSA’s comms lead says marrying the business objectives with the marketing plan is relatively straightforward, as the association is naturally a collaborative place. That also means it can feed data and insight on products and services into the next development round.
“You have to use the data to keep things aligned, and you have to ensure that marketing is part of the design of a product,” Bogira says. “You can’t just create something you think people should want and then sell it to them with a bit of clever messaging at the end of the line.”
This member-focussed mentality is exactly the reason why the PLSA has been careful with messaging about its centennial celebrations in 2023.
“Who wants to see a load of self- congratulation on LinkedIn during a cost-of-living crisis?” Bogira says. “We are bringing out the strength of our history, or ‘leveraging our brand heritage’ as a marketing director should say.
“We’ve been here a long time and we’ve done great things, so let’s remind our members of the strength of that history and that we’re always here for them.”
The PLSA’s established influence on the UK institutional investment scene serves more than just its members, of course. Marketing managers from asset managers, custodian banks and support service providers regularly sponsor and support the organisation’s events.
“As well as helping our members with the challenges they face, the PLSA is a marketplace for bringing pension funds and people who supply services together,” Bogira says.
“Away from that, you’ve seen, through campaigns like ‘Pensions Attention’, the power of trade associations working together to do something new and positive.”
In the weeks ahead, the trade group will begin its next major piece of work – its biennial member perceptions audit. “This will inform our strategic development as an organisation,” says Bogira.