From Private Equity Wire

The Cayman Alternative Investment Summit (CAIS) has become an authoritative platform for fresh thinking on alternative investing and 2016 is set to raise the bar another notch higher.

Taking place at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel between 4th and 5th February 2016, Grand Cayman, the theme of CAIS 2016 is “Alternative Investments: Supercharged”.

Since its inception in 2012, CAIS has become a key fixture on the event calendar for global alternative fund managers and asset owners and is now widely regarded as the global voice of the alternative industry.

Bringing together the sharpest minds with a host of guest and industry speakers from different segments of the global alternatives industry, CAIS provides a platform to explore the challenges and opportunities facing the industry and design responses that will take it to its next level of success.

In an age where quantitative easing has artificially inflated asset prices and delivered lowest interest rates in history, the main focus of CAIS been to convert challenges into opportunities and create businesses of enduring value.

Special guest speakers include: actress and author Jamie Lee Curtis; David Jones, co-founder of One Young World; Kerry Kennedy, human rights activist, and writer and Meghan Markle, actress, model and lifestyle entrepreneur.

Industry speakers, to name but a few, include: Andrew Bastow, Vice President and Head of European Restructuring and Regulatory Affairs, AQR Capital Management; Tom Brown, Global Head of Investment Management, KPMG; Emma Dickson, General Counsel, Criterion Capital Management, LLC; Sean Donohue, Head of Valuations, Apollo Global Management, LP and Mark Okada, co-founder and CIO of Highland Capital Management, LP.

Via an in-depth look at industry dynamics, CAIS 2016 will highlight those mega drivers re-shaping alternatives and the strategic repositioning they call for. Topics that attract most attention are the key profit drivers – innovation, talent, client centricity, globalisation, regulation and state-of-the-art business models.

Day 1 will focus on cultivating new client segments and geographies. The second panel discussion, entitled “Supercharging Our Industry Brand in a Shrinking Globe” will touch upon the following key points:

• Developing a trusted brand for the alternative investment industry
• Refining the value proposition
• Harnessing the power of digital technology
• Targeting the under-served client segments and geographies
• Creating businesses of enduring value

Other panel discussions throughout the day will focus on generating high returns in a low return environment, how to regenerate the alternatives industry in the age of financial repression, how to identify the barriers to growth of alternative investing, and how to cope with headwinds from quantitative easing.

Day 2 will focus on creating new growth engines. A few of the panel topics are provided below:

WINNERS AND LOSERS IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
• Understanding the subtle nuances of the global economy • Capitalising on the rising debt overhang
• Identifying the winners and losers in different regions
• Anticipating and planning for the big shifts
• Implications for the alternatives industry

REAL ASSETS: BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME
• Monitoring valuations as large SWFs ramp up their allocations
• Seeking new opportunity sets in opportunistic as well as core assets • Addressing the liquidity challenges
• Improving engagement with trustees of institutional investors

TRADITIONAL VS ALTERNATIVE: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
• The challenges to the alternative investment industry
• Fees and performance
• Internalising the lessons from the first wave of growth in the US • Creating new niches in Europe and Asia Pacific

For those looking to rewind at the end of the day, Legends Tennis, one of Cayman’s showcase sporting events, will be running on both evenings of CAIS. Summit attendees will have the opportunity to snap up tickets and watch some entertaining exhibition tennis at the splendid Festival Green in Camana Bay.

Anna Kournikova, Jim Courier and Andy Roddick are just a few of the celebrity players preparing to serve up an ace-filled evening.

Those wishing to attend CAIS are asked to click on the following link: http://www.caymansummit.com/register/

For more on this story go to: http://www.privateequitywire.co.uk/2015/12/14/234747/cayman-alternative-investment-summit-2016-set-deliver-“supercharged”-insights