Camp Alphaville

Main Stage Programme | Speakers | Igloo Sessions

What the heck is an igloo anyway? We want Camp Alphaville to be as interactive an event as possible and to replicate the blogosphere in physical form.

We’re going to brush off the stuffy conference formats of yesteryear and bring you — our guests — up, close and personal with the world-class industry experts we have personally selected to discuss themes as diverse as football and basic income across four inflatable igloos.

Think of it like the chatroom sessions moderated by AOL staffers back in the day.



Izzy's IGLOO
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm	Hedging for Skynet Moderator: Izabella Kaminska, FT Alphaville Nicolas Courtois, Cryptographer, Senior Lecturer in Computer Science, UCL Jamie Macintosh, Director, Institute for Security & Resilience Yann Ranchere, Financial Director, Anthemis, Tekfin blog Smari Mccarthy, Software developer and political activist, Icelandic Digital Freedom Society Leander Bindewald, New Economics Foundation This is part spillover from our main fintech panel and part a discussion about protecting value itself in the era of cyber disruption. We’ll be talking cryptography for payment and asset registration and transfer, what the heck is value anyway, crisis resilience, identity as currency and a bit of anacyclosis. There may also be balanced Bitcoin talk.
2:30 pm - 3:30 pm	The new commodity paradigm Moderator: Neil Hume, Commodities Editor, Financial Times Olivier Jakob, Petromatrix John Kemp, Reuters Craig Pirrong, Professor of Finance, University of Houston Harry Tchilingurian, BNP Paribas Ed Morse, Managing director and global head of commodities research, Citi Neil Hume will be chatting everything from banks moving out of commodities and the death of volatility to the shale cash-burn and how interest rate are affecting commodities, with some of the most respected commodities analysts and experts in the field.
4:00 pm - 4:30 pm	The world's greatest ever short, almost Izabella Kaminska, FT Alphaville John Hempton, Head of Bronte Capital, Bronte Capital \|
4:30 pm - 5:30 pm	Death of a financial intermediary Moderator: Tracy Alloway, US Correspondent, Financial Times Renaud Laplanche, CEO, Lending Club, the world's biggest P2P lender Cormac Leech, Bank Analyst, Liberum Capital Matt Levine, Bloomberg columnist and former equity derivatives salesman at Goldman Sachs Krishan Rattan, Founder, Voltaire Capital Peer-to-peer lending! Negative interest rates! The future of FICC! There will be drama, tears and existential crises galore as we discuss new challenges to the banking industry. Featuring Renaud Laplanche, chief executive of Lending Club, the world’s largest peer-to-peer lender; Cormac Leech; banking analyst at Liberum Capital, Matt Levine, Bloomberg columnist and former equity derivatives salesman at Goldman Sachs and Krishan Rattan, founder of Voltaire Capital, a new market-making venture.
Dan's IGLOO
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm	Secular stagnation and the argument for a basic income Moderator: Frances Coppola, Associate Editor, Pieria Sam Bowman, Research Director, Adam Smith Institute Tomas Hirst, Commissioning Digital Content Editor, World Economic Forum Barb Jacobson, Coordinator, European Citizen's Initiative for an Unconditional Basic Income Frances Coppola is a former banker turned singing teacher, who came to prominence as a finance thought leader thanks to her smart and pithy commentary about banks and capital ratios in the days after the global financial crisis. If you don’t know who Frances is, dare we say it, you’re probably not doing the finance social media thing properly. We knew we wanted her involved, it was just a question of how. She came to us with the idea of hosting a discussion about the feasibility of a basic income. So that’s what you’ll be getting. For details of who else will be joining her, please stay tuned for more news shortly.
1:30 pm - 2:30 pm	But is it a ponzi? Moderator: Dan McCrum, Reporter, FT Alphaville John Hempton, Head of Bronte Capital, Bronte Capital No, this isn’t going to be a discussion about Bitcoin. One of the biggest debates on the blogosphere this year has centred around whether Bill Ackman’s call last year that Herbalife is a glorified ponzi scheme is right or not. FT Alphaville’s Dan McCrum has made an entire series of it — in the process becoming a near certified expert on what constitutes a pyramid and what does not, himself leaning towards the idea that Herbalife has a case to answer. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world John Hempton of Bronte Capital has been arguing — whilst slimming down on Herbalife products — the opposite. He agrees with the company, which says it is legitimate. The debate goes on in the Adhoc igloo, and it could get feisty.
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm	Is your football club for sale? Moderator: Duncan Robinson, Reporter, FT Alphaville Keith Harris, Former chairman of the Football League and prolific football financier This is going to be a chat about football finance and what’s likely to be the next big deal in the sector. And since it’s still the World Cup, we’re sure some regular football talk will probably crop up as well.
5:00 pm - 6:00 pm	When disruptive tech goes all George Jetson Moderator: Henry Foy, Financial Times David Galbraith, Architect, digital strategist, co-founder of Yelp Michael Osborne, Associate Professor in Machine Learning, University of Oxford Andrew Blogg, Director, Future Aerial Innovations Dr Rainer Mehl, Head of Manufacturing Consulting, NTT Data EMEA Drone talk, self-driving cars, artificial intelligence, the sharing economy and 3D printing.
Cardiff's IGLOO
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm	Central banks and their jedi mind tricks Moderator: Cardiff Garcia, US Editor, FT Alphaville Moderator: Lorcan Roche Kelly, Founder, Agenda Research Lars Christensen, Chief Analyst, Danske Bank Josh Ryan-Collins, Senior Researcher, Monetary Reform, New Economics Foundation Paul Woolley, Founder, Paul Woolley Centre for the Study of Capital Market Dysfunctionality In between hosting events on the main stage, Cardiff will find the time to sit down with some key names including a Mystery Market Monetarist to discuss what’s next in central bank policy. This will be a chat about central bank policy that goes beyond the conventional — beyond, even, the unconventional.
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm	FX Wars: When the central banks strike back Moderator: John Authers, Senior Investment Columnist, Financial Times Steven Englander, Global Head of G10 FX Strategy, Citi Kit Juckes, @KitJuckes; Strategist, Societe Generale Paul Lambert, Head of Currency, Insight Asset Management Stephen Lewis, Chief Economist, Monument Securities We’ll be keeping this FX discussion as topical as possible. Expect the key developments of the week discussed, general themes about currency allocation and possibly some reserve and cryptocurrency talk as well.
4:30 pm - 5:30 pm	Twitter finance talk at Camp Alphaville Moderator: Lorcan Roche Kelly, Founder, Agenda Research Gustavo Baratta, @Gusbaratta; Market maker of euro government bonds Joseph Cotterill, @Jsphctrl, FT Lex Kit Juckes, @KitJuckes; Strategist, Societe Generale Izabella Kaminska, FT Alphaville @ECB, The European Central Bank on Twitter Lorcan Roche Kelly is a man who somehow turned commenting on FT Alphaville into a profession. He’s now considered a leading expert on the ECB as well as a social media star in his own right. He’ll be hosting an adhoc discussion on what exactly finance professional can get out of Twitter. Consider this the real-world version of Twitter finance talk.
David's IGLOO
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm	The Pari Passu Saga - Live on Ice, The Musical* Moderator: Joseph Cotterill, @Jsphctrl, FT Lex Joseph Cotterill takes your questions on the sovereign debt trial of the century - or anything else sovereign debt-related. (*NB: not in fact on ice, nor a musical).
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm	The inequality question Bhanu Baweja, Head of Emerging Market Cross-Asset Strategy, UBS Stephane Deo, Global Head of Asset Allocation, UBS Recommendations for addressing growing poverty within developing and developed countries.
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm	Red Hero Michael Preiss, Founder, Mongolia Asset Management \|
3:30 pm - 4:30 pm	The China question up close and personal Moderator: David Keohane, India Correspondent, FT Alphaville Carson Block, Founder, Muddy Waters Research Diana Choyleva, Head of Macroeconomic Research, Lombard Street Michael Pettis, Professor of Finance, Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, Beijing Anne Stevenson-Yang, Co-founder, J Capital Research James White, Senior Investment Analyst Where anything left over or unexplored from the main panel will get thrashed out — rebalancing or the myth of rebalancing, the corporate house of cards, whether China is in fact post-capital, insanity in the property market, the direction of the yuan, magic collateral etc. Companies offering baijiu sponsorship contact david.keohane@ft.com.
4:30 pm - 5:30 pm	The China question in commodities Moderator: Neil Hume, Commodities Editor, Financial Times Diana Choyleva, Head of Macroeconomic Research, Lombard Street Anne Stevenson-Yang, Co-founder, J Capital Research James White, Senior Investment Analyst Seth Kleinman, Global Head of Energy Strategy, Citi China has always been a big deal in commodity markets, but commodity people don’t always have the chance to speak to the China experts themselves. In this discussion, Neil Hume will be flipping the discussion on its head. It’ll be commodities people talking to China experts instead. Expect discussion about everything from Chinese collateral shenanigans and reserve stockpiles, to party politics and China’s focus on technology, infrastructure building and renewables consumption. There will also be talk about the internalisation of the yuan, its likely future valuation as well as its impact on commodity markets.