Post by brianinatlanta on Jun 3, 2006 13:22:34 GMT
Financial Times
Hedge funds jump on hippie bandwagon
By Stephen Schurr in London
Published: June 3 2006 03:00
This is the dawning of the age of hedge funds, and, at last, they are about to have their Woodstock. Even The Who are showing up.
It may not quite be three days of peace and music, as Woodstock was billed, but next Wednesday and Thursday, thousands of hedge fund managers, investors and employees will make the pilgrimage to Knebworth House, half an hour north of London, to attend Hedgestock, the "new-age networking event for the hedge fund community".
The festival features not only Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend headlining what the organisers have dubbed a "kick-asset" concert, but also polo and poker tournaments, and ranks of retro-hippie VW Camper Vans, customised and sold starting at £10,000 a time. It is hosted by Albourne Partners, the hedge fund advisory firm and proprietor of the popular Albourne Village website.
In a quintessential hedge fund industry touch, Ashton Wayne of Albourne Partners has a group, called Alphaspin, that will play as support to The Who: a perk of backing the event.
Tom Wolfe recently described hedge fund managers as the most likely modern-day candidates to re-place his 1980s Masters of the Universe from Bonfire of the Vanities. The idea of them joining a love-in with deliberate echoes of the seminal event of the 1960s counter-culture might seem curious, if not downright comical.
Indeed, the Albourne Partners founders acknowledge the irony. The Hedgestock website features pins doves and peace signs juxtaposed with slogans such as "Make Money Not War" and "Alpha Male": a reference to thejargon for a manager'sability to beat the market.
Nonetheless, the planners of Hedgestock, which is supported financially and otherwise by 10 of the largest investment banks, are quite serious about the bash and its goals. One goal is simple networking as the hedge fund industry goes global: the event features more than 100 speakers and more than 3,000 "one-on-one" meetings. The bigger goal, the founders say, is charity: all of the profits from the event will benefit Teenage Cancer Trust, the charity that raises money to help children with cancer.
The idea for Hedgestock, said Simon Ruddick, Albourne's chief executive, came after "quite a dull hedge fund event in Sweden after which an industry friend said, 'at least if it had been for charity someone somewhere would have benefited from it'."
That germ of an idea led to the notion of a putting the conference in a field instead of a hotel, with a rock festival feel. Len Gayler, a longtime UK hedge fund manager who runs Cayenne Asset Management and helped Albourne launch Hedgestock, said Knebworth House was the perfect location because of its history as a venue for fabled concerts by the likes of Led Zeppelin, Queen and Oasis, and also because of its proximity to London's thriving hedge fund community. "London is now the hedge fund centre, at the very least of Europe," he said.
The conference agenda reflects the bravura of the hedge fund industry, and its highly developed self-image: rich enough to have polo and a very high stakes poker tournament, yet hip and counter-cultural enough to attract rock bands and DJs from around the globe.
The big coup, of course, was landing The Who. One would imagine that a group of well-heeled hedge fund types would have to pay a princely sum to land the group, who performed at Woodstock back in 1969. But Roger Daltrey, who has been active in many charities and is affiliated with the Teenage Cancer Trust, signed on for free, and got the band to join him ahead of their tour.
"One of our tag lines about The Who for Hedgestock is 'you missed them at Woodstock, don't miss them at Hedgestock'," Mr Gayler said. Mr Gayler is a two-decade veteran of the hedge fund business who, unlike many in the industry, was alive at the time of Woodstock.
Duncan Brown, who raises assets for UK hedge fund Winton Capital, was five in 1969, but he still is eager to get into the spirit. "The whole point is to make it fun. Let's face it, this is the antithesis of what most of us do every day," said Mr Brown.
His firm is sending more than a dozen staffers to the event in two VW vans complete with costumes that hark back to the psychedelic 1960s. But he imagines there will be some differences from the original event. "Woodstock was more drug-baked, this one will be primarily alcohol-fuelled."
The gathering is expected to be lucrative for TCT. Registration costs £500 a person, and the planners say they expect between 4,000 and 4,500 to attend. Many industry participants are making the trek from the US to attend.
Meanwhile, there are other endeavours to raise money, such as fees for poker tournaments and other competitive events aimed at appealing to the basic nature of the hedge fund manager. "These are the most competitive people on earth, so there's no bigger stake than bragging rights," said Mr Ruddick.
From Woodstock to Hedgestock, it has been a long, strange trip.
-Brian in Atlanta
The Who This Month!
Hedge funds jump on hippie bandwagon
By Stephen Schurr in London
Published: June 3 2006 03:00
This is the dawning of the age of hedge funds, and, at last, they are about to have their Woodstock. Even The Who are showing up.
It may not quite be three days of peace and music, as Woodstock was billed, but next Wednesday and Thursday, thousands of hedge fund managers, investors and employees will make the pilgrimage to Knebworth House, half an hour north of London, to attend Hedgestock, the "new-age networking event for the hedge fund community".
The festival features not only Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend headlining what the organisers have dubbed a "kick-asset" concert, but also polo and poker tournaments, and ranks of retro-hippie VW Camper Vans, customised and sold starting at £10,000 a time. It is hosted by Albourne Partners, the hedge fund advisory firm and proprietor of the popular Albourne Village website.
In a quintessential hedge fund industry touch, Ashton Wayne of Albourne Partners has a group, called Alphaspin, that will play as support to The Who: a perk of backing the event.
Tom Wolfe recently described hedge fund managers as the most likely modern-day candidates to re-place his 1980s Masters of the Universe from Bonfire of the Vanities. The idea of them joining a love-in with deliberate echoes of the seminal event of the 1960s counter-culture might seem curious, if not downright comical.
Indeed, the Albourne Partners founders acknowledge the irony. The Hedgestock website features pins doves and peace signs juxtaposed with slogans such as "Make Money Not War" and "Alpha Male": a reference to thejargon for a manager'sability to beat the market.
Nonetheless, the planners of Hedgestock, which is supported financially and otherwise by 10 of the largest investment banks, are quite serious about the bash and its goals. One goal is simple networking as the hedge fund industry goes global: the event features more than 100 speakers and more than 3,000 "one-on-one" meetings. The bigger goal, the founders say, is charity: all of the profits from the event will benefit Teenage Cancer Trust, the charity that raises money to help children with cancer.
The idea for Hedgestock, said Simon Ruddick, Albourne's chief executive, came after "quite a dull hedge fund event in Sweden after which an industry friend said, 'at least if it had been for charity someone somewhere would have benefited from it'."
That germ of an idea led to the notion of a putting the conference in a field instead of a hotel, with a rock festival feel. Len Gayler, a longtime UK hedge fund manager who runs Cayenne Asset Management and helped Albourne launch Hedgestock, said Knebworth House was the perfect location because of its history as a venue for fabled concerts by the likes of Led Zeppelin, Queen and Oasis, and also because of its proximity to London's thriving hedge fund community. "London is now the hedge fund centre, at the very least of Europe," he said.
The conference agenda reflects the bravura of the hedge fund industry, and its highly developed self-image: rich enough to have polo and a very high stakes poker tournament, yet hip and counter-cultural enough to attract rock bands and DJs from around the globe.
The big coup, of course, was landing The Who. One would imagine that a group of well-heeled hedge fund types would have to pay a princely sum to land the group, who performed at Woodstock back in 1969. But Roger Daltrey, who has been active in many charities and is affiliated with the Teenage Cancer Trust, signed on for free, and got the band to join him ahead of their tour.
"One of our tag lines about The Who for Hedgestock is 'you missed them at Woodstock, don't miss them at Hedgestock'," Mr Gayler said. Mr Gayler is a two-decade veteran of the hedge fund business who, unlike many in the industry, was alive at the time of Woodstock.
Duncan Brown, who raises assets for UK hedge fund Winton Capital, was five in 1969, but he still is eager to get into the spirit. "The whole point is to make it fun. Let's face it, this is the antithesis of what most of us do every day," said Mr Brown.
His firm is sending more than a dozen staffers to the event in two VW vans complete with costumes that hark back to the psychedelic 1960s. But he imagines there will be some differences from the original event. "Woodstock was more drug-baked, this one will be primarily alcohol-fuelled."
The gathering is expected to be lucrative for TCT. Registration costs £500 a person, and the planners say they expect between 4,000 and 4,500 to attend. Many industry participants are making the trek from the US to attend.
Meanwhile, there are other endeavours to raise money, such as fees for poker tournaments and other competitive events aimed at appealing to the basic nature of the hedge fund manager. "These are the most competitive people on earth, so there's no bigger stake than bragging rights," said Mr Ruddick.
From Woodstock to Hedgestock, it has been a long, strange trip.
-Brian in Atlanta
The Who This Month!