What a day! Fix Emea 2022 in London

What a day last Thursday! 2 years and 2 weeks elapsed since the last FIX EMEA trading conference in London! An absolute eternity!

I felt excited like a schoolboy leaving home for the first day of the new school year… Who will be there again? Who switched classes? How did things go over the last 2 years?

How well did it feel, getting on the Eurostar to London! It used to be a routine…now it was an experience again!

Arriving in St-Pancras, jumping on the Thameslink, jumping off in The City and 5 minutes walking to the venue….the return of the salesman’s life…I almost forgot the excitement of it it!

Finally, I arrived at Leonardo Royal and entered the already well crowded exposition area. Before I could even reach the cloakroom I bumped into Alex and Ty, shook hands with James and noticed a bunch of former colleagues, clients and friends who I hadn’t seen live for years!

I caught up with Eric, learning about the latest evolutions in the bank’s dealing room, had coffee with my Scandinavian friends from Nasdaq, Sequitor, London Stock Exchange and wherever they were working now. How nice to see my Italian friends from List and exchanging old memories with Kumalin, Simon and Stewart! Nick from Traderserve, it must have been 4-5 years since we last met!

As much fun it was to meet “old “ friends, as enjoyable it was to meet people I did not know… In one way or another the atmosphere just led to new acquaintances. I met with Pippa, senior director in a big bank, who got into finance after a career in the Royal Navy. With Monica, born and raised in Costa Rica, I chatted about her wonderful country which I visited a couple of times as a mariner myself. And there was Robert, Arsiane, Yuhang, Dan…and so many more. The price for the funniest company name certainly went to my new Dutch friends of “BOTS” , “bots” meaning  “bump” in English.

Of course, one would forget, we talked about business as well, exchanging more information and news than in a month of on-line covid times.

I had a great strategy discussion with Richard and John and a technical one with Paul. 

New opportunities popped up, next actions got agreed, plans made,….summarized : we’re back in business!

As a cherry on the conference cake I met with Karen, whose name strongly suggested Flemish ancestors. And yes, we had a lively chat about the origins of the “Biebuyck” name.

After the conference a lot of people gathered at the pub around the corner and discussions and exchanges of ideas just went on in this friendly atmosphere that I also hardly remembered.

I had a fantastic day and evening thanks to this fantastic FIX Global event team! 

Thank you FIX Global and all sponsors and participants! We are so happy and proud to be part of this lively and exciting community!

I can’t wait to see you again very soon, in Stockholm!