Get stuffed for Christmas

Three more sleeps until Christmas and this will be my last day in work until the 9^thJanuary which is why the blog is coming out today. Please relax avid blog readers, it isn’t Friday already and so you still have time to get that last minute shopping in before the weekend. This is something that I will be doing tomorrow!

It has been a phenomenal year highlighted by the brilliant 25^thAnniversary Conference in October, the acceptance of the IFP as an Accredited Body by the FSA and the launch of the Accredited Financial Planning firm register. Social Media has really taken off and the IFP is riding this exciting wave of communication as we extend the communities of Financial Planners and Paraplanners.

IFPTV launched during the year and we were able to record Christmas messages to send out to members and sponsors which was great fun. I would still love to deliver some reality based soap opera in Financial Planning and perhaps we will move this forward in 2012. The working title at IFP Headquarters is “The only way is Ethics”! If you are bored with the traditional TV schedules and have no other life, take time out to look at some of the existing stuff on IFPTV. Feedback has been really good so far.

I was pleased that once again NMA picked me as one of their comic stooges in their Panto line up. Widow Twanky (not with the silent t) also transferred to our Christmas message and I noted rather worryingly given my youthful age that I am included in their shortlist for lifetime achievement at their conference in January. I hope that I haven’t missed anything in the messages that I have received from the IFP Board or my Doctor!

One of the outcomes of hand held devices is that social media is now with us 24-7. In conferences and dinners it is an excuse for people to legitimately fiddle with something under the table without worried looks from neighbours. The vigorous keying is sometimes a little off-putting for the speaker as is the lighting up of a dark room when the glows start to appear. It does however provide for instant feedback. The hand held (other good brands available) is however the curse in the home as we are all too paranoid to put it down for a minute lest there is an important or in fact any message there for us. People now crave the flashing red light so that they can dash of to a secret place to review what has been sent through.

People will now put on their out of office for the Christmas holidays and will spend hours waiting for the red light to flash so that they can immediately respond to the random Christmas email. It is now even less embarrassing to be caught with top shelf material than responding to emails when on holiday. Although as somebody pointed out last week, it must be really embarrassing to go in for top shelf material these days because it means that you probably can’t afford broadband!

The IFP Christmas Party visited one of the more salubrious areas of Bristol (I was worried about leaving car but all ok in the end) and reached the comedy club at the Hen and Chicken. Great night and we even got Steve to laugh six or more times! I wouldn’t recommend the soup which came in a bucket and was thinner than a Cuppa Soup low calorie pack (not that I would know what that was like). I was indebted to Marianne for a resume on her appalling customer service experience with DFS. Their new motto being “we will deliver your new sofa before Christmas if we actually have one to deliver!”

 As seems to be the case these days, audiences are told not to heckle the comedians (bless!) although I am not sure that they tell the comedians this. They seem often bemused that the audience isn’t responding to the “anybody in from ...” lines. Not however last Friday although rather amusingly the bouncer didn’t know what to do because the heckling was coming from the group with the man in a wheelchair – awkward! The bouncer just tried to look even more menacing when they heckled without doing anything about it!

At this time of the year there are lots of funny (most rude) clips and jokes flying around. I am indebted to Ian O Connor CFP^CM for reminding me of this one which is not particularly Christmassy but follows hard on the heels of my customer service rant last week http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OilSiTNnZ3g.

Next year will be the year of digital as we embrace the excitement of QR codes and “google goggles” etc. It will be the year when a fund manager has the confidence to come and do a presentation without the need for a powerpoint presentation full of graphs and charts that send delegates for the flashing lights. The most common phrase is likely to be “RDR ready” and I think the most popular image is likely to be a turkey with RDR ready on the side. It will be the year when the Financial Planning profession finally gets established in the UK and that we are able to show the rest of the world why a lot of this regulatory change has been worthwhile.

If you are looking for exciting last minute Christmas presents why not take advantage of the early bird prices of some of the excellent IFP events coming up in the first quarter of 2012. You might even treat one of your team or a Paraplanner to annual membership of the IFP. Makes sense to me although you might need to balance that “useful” present with something a little lighter!

I hope that you all have a great Christmas. Thank you all for your support and for reading this every week. The IFP is a great place to work and 2012 is going to be really exciting for a lot of positive reasons. I am now off to enjoy Christmas Ho ho ho!