Technology Summit • HWlive

Technology is driving, and enabling, huge and transformational changes in the way that hedge fund management firms operate across all areas of their businesses – in how firms work and collaborate internally, and in how managers interact with investors and key service providers and counterparties.

Whether in the front, middle or back office, remote working has acted as a catalyst to accelerate dramatically the adoption of new solutions, technologies and tools as hedge fund industry participants adapt to a very different operating environment now and into the future.

Hedgeweek will be hosting its inaugural Global Technology Summit on 19-20 May – an event that brings together managers, investors and service providers to assess the changes, opportunities and challenges offered by the wave of technological innovation that is sweeping the industry; how funds can best adapt their technology management to take advantage of these shifts and trends; and the latest solutions and services that managers should be looking to adopt and leverage so as to optimise the way they operate and run their businesses.

How are hedge funds prioritising new technologies to adjust their investment strategies to today’s market dynamics?
What technology trends do you anticipate coming to the fore, over the next five years?
The increasing role of AI and machine learning tools – which aspects of the hedge fund operating model might best benefit?
Virtual portfolio managers – will quant funds exert even more influence on global markets and if so, what might some of the unintended consequences be?
What new job roles will we see evolve this decade?

How are technology platforms re-shaping the capital introduction model?
What types of technology are IR teams introducing, as a result of the pandemic, to connect with investors?
How is the IR role evolving in line with tech innovation, and how is this helping improve investor communication/reporting?
What kind of best practices should managers be mindful of, when doing virtual fundraising, and what are some of the main risks to avoid?
Will we see a hybrid approach to fundraising, on a permanent basis, going forward, combining the human element with the machine?

How is artificial intelligence being used to improve cybersecurity tools i.e. better helping firms identify changes in employee behaviour ahead of a data breach?
Home is where the threat is – how is endpoint security stepping up to protect remote office working?
How to guard against emerging cyber threats, such as ‘Insider-as-a-service’ model, aimed at bad actors being recruited remotely and stealing IP.
What should today’s CTO or CISO be prioritizing to maintain data security and good cyber hygiene?
What does the next evolution of the public cloud look like? And what might the long-term benefits be to asset managers?
API trends and latest areas of cloud tool application across the enterprise

Overcoming the challenge of analysing large data sets before the data becomes obsolete; what techniques are managers pursuing to gain, and maintain, an edge?
What advances in algorithms are being applied to parsing and analysing textual data – and are these advances improving the power of predictive analytics?
How are hedge fund managers developing their own proprietary tools to make data management processes and controls more efficient?
Best practices for setting out and overseeing an effective data management strategy
The role of internal culture in setting out a path for data transformation

Crude oil refinement: utilizing technology in a way that removes the data impurities to create clean data sets
Tactics/approaches for reinforcing the research methodology and the role of AI in data contextualization
Assessing the value of combining alternative data sets to develop ‘metadata’ sets – can this strengthen trade signals and mitigate data obsolescence?
How are data platforms evolving to develop new signal indicators beyond sentiment intelligence
Should the front-office approach alternative data vendor selection like stock picking, to optimize their research budgets?
Latest thoughts on how managers are evaluating the efficacy and value-add of alternative data sets – is the proof in the pudding?

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