May 8, 2025
I recently had the pleasure of seeing a remake of the remake of Glenngarry Glen Ross. Kieran Kulkin as Ricky Roma, Bill Burr as David Moss and Bob Odenkirk as Shelley the Machine Levene. What’s not to love?
Missing from this version of the play about a group of hapless real estate salesmen using high pressure tactics to sell land is the Alex Baldwin character. No ABC, no AIDA, no aggressive, humiliating pep talk in which “third prize is you’re fired”. At one point in his rant, Baldwin yells, “I’ve been in this business 15 years!”
I thought about this and realized my own career in markets now spans more than double that, at 34 years. I’ve spent that time almost entirely on the sell-side of the markets business in derivative sales and strategy. That’s a long time and it’s given me an opportunity to, as Yogi Berra said, “observe a lot by just watching”.
Dreamin’ of Collaboration…
What I’ve come to appreciate is the exceptional power of collaboration in our industry. Economics and finance are complicated. Managing risk and generating return is difficult and often humbling. Members of the investment community compete with one another, but they also learn from each other, even need each other to expand their skill sets. And one of the reasons I founded the MacroMinds Foundation was to play some small role in facilitating high quality interaction among professionals through our annual investment symposium.
The Marketplace of Good Ideas…
If you are on the sell-side and in the client business, hosting events comes with the territory. I’ve always enjoyed building events that are part content and part social, underpinned by the idea that some component of the job is not only to bring insights, but also to play a role in helping your clients meet each other.
Around 10 years ago, I started attending and sponsoring and bringing clients to the IRA Sohn Conference. I said to myself, “this is pretty interesting…I’m contributing to a worthy cause, I’m hearing from some of the brightest minds in finance and I’m getting a chance to meet clients and strengthen our relationship.” This is pretty powerful. I had this thought that I would like to start the IRA Sohn for Macro.
Our Four Symposiums…
With the tremendous generosity of our sponsors and speakers, we’ve hosted four events of extremely high quality, raising $1.7 million in the process to support our charities that are focused on student education. Fifty-six speakers and 18 moderators have lent their considerable insights to making each of these programs both unique and valuable.
Convincing leading voices in the industry to share their time and insights is the first step. An amazing event is also about who is in the audience. After all, it’s the “spontaneous collaboration” that occurs during lunch, coffee breaks and (my personal favorite), post-event reception that can be really valuable. To that end, our attendees have been from the buy-side, the sell-side and from the allocator community and across every asset class. MacroMinds is founded on the idea of facilitating relationship building among focused, senior professionals who are really on their games. At the events have been portfolio managers, chief investment officers, chief risk officers, heads of strategy efforts and various trading desks, traders, salestraders, heads of asset allocation and heads of investor relations.
Connecting and Reconnecting…
It has been especially gratifying for me to see folks in attendance both meet for the first time and also to reconnect. At lunch, at the 2022 event, two attendees, at Goldman together more than 20 years ago, found themselves at the same table. Another duo, from 2023 was a sales / coverage relationship from a decade ago (“hey, you ran me over!”). A third pair, also from 2023, had gone to college together and not seen each other in years.
The collaboration is not just fun, but important. The pandemic did a lot of bad things, one of which was to impede that strictly in-person activity called relationship building. In addition to supporting educational causes and having world class speakers, our mission seeks to bring people together. Though I am never quite confident on how to spell it, rapport is a favorite word of mine. Tony Robbins says that rapport is the ability to enter someone else’s world, to make the person feel understood and that you have a strong common bond. Productive, collaborative relationships underpin success and longevity in our industry.
Alpha in Engagement…
On May 22nd, we are hosting a really fun event at the Glass House Chelsea to celebrate the 5 year anniversary of the MacroMinds project and to say thank you to those who have been instrumental in our success. The VIX and tariffs may come up, but it is food, drink and, most importantly, laughter that will be highly prioritized.
As I reflect on our first 4 events and express gratitude to our speakers and sponsors, I’m hoping to also get folks very excited about our 2026 symposium. Like me, I am sure you’ve attended your share of conferences over the years – some good, others not so much. I’ve come to strongly believe that the value of an event hinges on the audience. The alpha generated from attending an event and the optionality that arises from being away from your Bloomberg screen result from the productive interaction with other leading industry participants. My goal – and I hope you will help us achieve it – is to make our 2026 event a “thought leadership convention”.
I hope you can be a part of it and I thank you for your support.
Sincerely, Dean
Founder, MacroMinds Foundation