We are really pleased to confirm something that many people in the financial services have suspected for some time: that platforms, pensions and investments expert, Mark Polson’s status is a Guru.

Well, he’ll be a Guru for at least one hour during the afternoon on 19 September 2013.

That’s because the boss of Edinburgh-based consultancy, The Lang Cat, will be leading the mid-afternoon Guru session at the Paraplanners Powwow.

Even for the Professional Adviser Personality of the Year, it could be a tough gig.

Pitched somewhere between a prepared talk and – quite possibly – improvised stand-up, the role of the Powwow Guru is to be willing, ready and able to riff on topics that paraplanners will be raising during the event itself.

That means that, besides offering a perspective on issues such as which wraps wash ‘clean’ or ‘superclean’ when it comes to share classes, Mark will be fielding questions on any topic that’s on Powwow participants’ minds and teasing out insights from the gathered group.

With just over 20 tickets remaining for the event, you can book your ticket for the Paraplanners Powwow by our online booking form.

How do you carry out due diligence on platforms? How do you build a cashflow model? What goes into a really good report? What technology do you use and why? What should we be doing about auto-enrolment? Clean share classes – what the hell?

These are just some of the questions that are likely to come under scrutiny at the Paraplanners Powwow on 19 September 2013 at A Day in the Country, Upper Aynhno Grounds in Northamptonshire.

That’s because they are topics, already informally suggested for the Powwow, that registered participants have now been invited to express their preference for, in order to help create the agenda for the event on 19 September 2013.

Last Friday, we pinned up a digital blank piece of paper by publishing an online survey, inviting participants  – and a number of people who are teetering on the edge of attending – to decide upon the topics for discussion in two of the day’s session formats: the Small Hadron Collider and Show & Tell sessions.

The Small Hadron Collider is a 60-minute long session, featuring a maximum of two topics, in which paraplanners can dismantle and explore any aspect of paraplanning. Registered and potential participants are being invited to tell us how popular topics suggested so far are, and to offer ideas for topics that they really like to see featured in these sessions

Show & Tell sessions last an hour and feature quick-fire 10-slides-in-ten-minutes PechaKucha-style talks given by participants who volunteer. Topics must have a one-line title beginning with ‘what’, ‘how’, ‘why’, ‘who’, ‘when’ or ‘where’. Show & Tells can feature any topic that volunteers choose, so long as it has relevance to the life of a paraplanner.

The Powwow adopts ‘unconference’ principles, one of which is participation in agenda design. We published a post about the unconference format late last month.

Just 26 tickets remain for the event and paraplanners wishing to attend can book their place by completing the online registration. Registered participants will be able to access the online survey to contribute to the agenda design.

We thought you might like to see some pictures from yesterday’s technical site visit with A Day in the Country at Upper Aynho Grounds – including the chicken who found the catering conversation too much to handle and a picture of the terrace that we’ve arranged for anyone interested in a post-event drink.

Yesterday’s visit was all about planning food and drink with David the chef, and taking a look at the site of the encampment with Jerry from A Day in the Country, Paul from teepee people Papakata, and Nigel and Chris, who’ll be making sure we’re all wired for sound and vision.

Below, you can see a panoramic shot of the site – just click the picture for a larger image. This will be the view from the teepees*.

Powwow Panorama

* The value of temperatures can go up as well as down. Past temperature is not a guide to future temperature.

One of the things people have been most curious about since we announced the Powwow has been the format: what exactly is an ‘unconference’?

Well, traditional conference-style events depend on the organisers establishing the topics for discussion, the agenda, speakers and that kind of thing. Inevitably, this means that events are geared to their audiences listening to speakers and panel debates and, generally, adopting a bit of a passive role.

We wanted to try something different: to allow Powwow participants to influence the topics that are up for discussion and, if they wanted to, to put their hand up and stand up. Ultimately, though, we wanted people to be able to design and shape their own kind of day – and those are the organising principles behind an unconference.

So at the Powwow, most of the sessions are highly interactive discussion and workshop sessions, with content that’s decided upon by participants.

In advance of the event, we’ll be publishing surveys to discover the issues and topics that are on Powwow participants’ minds and will, therefore, feature in the event on the day. These could cover any number of issues but examples so far include

Depending on what people vote for, we hope to recruit the support of expert ‘gurus’ to add their views to the mix in sessions throughout the day.

We’re including a range of formats: from the 10-slides-in-ten-minutes PechaKucha-style ‘Show and Tell’ sessions to the 60-minute ‘Small Hadron Collider’ workshops, in which paraplanners nominate up to two topics to dismantle and explore an aspect of paraplanning – whether its best practice in pensions drawdown or making sense of a provider’s process – in pursuit of Higgs Bosons of practical enlightenment.

Then there will be Campfires, where supporters of the Powwow, eager to work with paraplanners, lay bare their ideas for new services, or seek paraplanning wisdom, to improve aspects of their online technology, support, service and training.

The main Powwow is a plenary session – conducted under Chatham House Rules – enabling all participants to gauge sentiment about what shape we all think the paraplanning profession should take in the future; in fact, what a paraplanning profession really looks like.

Finally, there’s at least one Guru Lecture – an individual speaker exploring, once again, a topic that’s influenced by the ideas generated from Powwow participants.

So the day’s what you make it. Instead of telling you what you’ll get, you’ll be able to suggest and decide, and choose and shape the content, and then take part in what you’ve helped to create.

We want to put the ‘confer’ in ‘conference’ so you can say, when the sun sets on the Powwow: ‘I came, I saw, I conferred.’

Plans to host a teepee-based powwow event to debate the future of the paraplanning profession will go ahead this September, organisers have announced.

Richard Allum confirmed that the Paraplanners Powwow, which is independent of professional bodies, will take place at Upper Aynho Grounds in Northamptonshire on 19 September 2013.

Up to 60 participants will be able to sign-up to take part in the one-day ‘unconference’, with those attending able to congregate with paraplanning peers to contribute to, and listen and learn from, best practice insights spanning the full spectrum of issues, ideas and innovations in UK paraplanning.

Richard explained: “With paraplanning at a professional crossroads, I thought there was room for a forum in which paraplanners could exchange views and ideas about the future shape of our profession in a way that is independent of the agendas of professional bodies.”

“At the heart of the day is the Powwow itself, which will be conducted under Chatham House Rules, and is designed to give paraplanners that opportunity.”

“But we also wanted to create an event that lets participants get stuck in and design their own day. So we’re creating a series of session formats that will give people the chance to listen, to lead and to take part.”

The not-for-profit event is being backed by Legal and General, AXA Wealth, Seven Investment Management and Transact.

Powwow organisers hope to allow participants to determine the topics that will feature in sessions during the day through online voting in advance of the event. Two styles of session – ‘Show and Tell’ and ‘Small Hadron Collider’ – will be entirely determined by voting in advance. In addition to the Powwow itself, the event will host up to two Guru Lectures with speakers due to be confirmed closer to the event.

You can follow news about the Powwow on Twitter at @ParaPowwow. The hashtag for the event is #parapowwow.