We’ve just returned from the STEP Global Congress in Vancouver – what a great event it was, reports Nigel Race.

Congress kicked off with two excellent keynote sessions on the theme of change: ‘Change has changed’, which was focused on change in the individual practitioner; and ‘Serving the New Clientele’, which looked at cultural types and an emerging client-hybrid culture. Two top-ranking speakers, James Grubman TEP and Dennis Jaffe TEP, made the case for developing stronger interpersonal skills and cultural knowledge to better serve clients and emerging client groups. We discussed with Dennis the possibility of bringing that session to a wider audience at some point in the future. Perhaps this might be a special offer for STEP’s Employer Partnership Programme (EPP)!

And on the theme of EPP, it was fantastic to see so many accredited firms present this year. There were no EPP-accredited firms at the first Congress in Miami, only a couple at Amsterdam in the very early days of EPP in 2016, and now, at Vancouver, we had 11 partners*. It is growing into a great community and will only continue to grow. It was nice to bump into Leanne Kaufman TEP, President Royal Trust, RBC, who has done so much to support STEP and EPP. And many congratulations to Borden Ladner Gervais LLP on its award. What a cheeky move to achieve the accreditation just in time to receive it on home soil and at the STEP Global Congress! Nancy Golding TEP, a member of the STEP Worldwide Board, received the award on the Friday morning in front of the whole auditorium. Well done to Nancy and her colleagues at BLG – we were delighted to make the award to you.

With Congress now over, we’ve been taking stock and reviewing the event. Feedback from sponsors and delegates has been outstanding. We had 95 per cent of delegates rating it as excellent or good, 97.5 per cent saying they would attend a similar event in the future, and the sponsors were delighted to have so many high-profile, senior figures in the industry.

STEP has already received bids to hold the next event – watch this space!

*EPP attendees at STEP Congress:

• Burges Salmon (England and Wales)
• RBC Estate & Trust Services (Canada)
• Rawlinson & Hunter (Cayman Is, E&W)
• BLG (Canada)
• Farrer (E&W)
• Wright Johnston & Mackenzie (Scotland)
• Stonehage Fleming (Switzerland)
• Mishcon de Reya (E&W)
• Butterfield Trust (Guernsey)
• Carey Olsen (Guernsey)
• Bedell Cristin (Jersey)

 

Nigel Race is Director, Professional Development at STEP