This year's Annual Conference was titled 'Back to Basics' and was held on the Wednesday 2nd - Thursday 3rd of December at the Hilton Brighton Metropole.

The conference, with a new format this year, had a morning's session in the main conference hall, with 'Breakout Zones' in the afternoon, addressing topics such as Invoice Finance, Asset Based Lending, and Technology and Motivation. But before all of this, the Welcome Reception, held at the hotel Hilton's Regency Suite and generously sponsored by Vision Critical, was a great way to start the event, as people found old friends and discussed the challenges that many were facing.

The BBC's Nick Ross hosted the conference's morning proceedings, which kicked off with a welcome speech by Maurice Craft, ABFA Chairman, outlining the changes which had taken place in the financial markets. Then first up was Guest Speaker Alastair Wilson, Head of the Bank of England's Financial Institutions Division, who discussed the importance of the banking sector and rebuilding it's balance sheet while supporting the recovery through lending to the real economy.

Then it was Dennis Turner's turn, Chief Economist from HSBC Bank, to look in detail at the UK economy and give an up-to-date view on the 'state of nation'. After coffee Tim Smith, from Marsh Trade Credit provided an update on the trade credit insurance market in the UK and across the globe, before Colin Haig of PricewaterhouseCoopers presented their findings from over 280 industry questionnaires from 9 regional road shows and also spoke about key issues facing the industry right now.

After lunch the programme resumed with delegates spreading out into the breakout rooms they were interested at. Breakout Zones had two presentation in each room. Invoice Finance Zone covered topic about Recent Challenges by Jamie Gould and Tony Harris from Smith & Williamson and New Markets, Risk and Opportunities presented by Paul Turner from Lloyds Banking Group. Technology and Motivation Zones offered subjects such as Reducing Risk and Cost with Document Automation by Philip Learmont from Microgen and Influence and Persuasion by Dil Sidhu from BDO Stoy Hayward LLP. ABL Zone was sponsored by Squire Sanders & Demspey. Jeff Longhurst from Crédit Agricole CF asked Simon Tilley from Close Brothers Corporate Finance and Jonathan Gregory from Matrix Private Equity Partners a variety of questions. And lastly Steve Chait from Burdale, Neville Khan and Daniel Butters from Delloite presented Lessons from Woolworths. These presentations were opened up to the audience for questions. Then the conference closed and all of the full ticket holders were invited to the Cocktail Reception and Dinner in the evening. There is not doubt that the content of this conference was the best yet, and delegates attending just for the day also added a new dimension which seemed to give the day a great energy.

The evening of 3rd saw the Cocktail Reception and the Gala Dinner. The hotel's food was fantastic, but most delegates will have left with a great memory of being entertained by after dinner speaker, Gyles Brandreth, who was undoubtedly the highlight of the evening for many. Gyles's after-dinner speech was perfectly judged, being humorous, with past tales of his career ranging from being a whip and Lord Commissioner of the Treasury in John's Major's government to starring in his own award-winning musical revue in London's West End. Gyles also spoke about the more serious topic and the latest economic situation we find ourselves in. Very perceptive and appropriate, it perfectly reflected the mood of the event as a whole.

Many have said that this conference has had the best, most relevant agenda to date. Many thanks are due to those that made it possible and helped to make the conference such a success. Also many thanks to all the other companies who supported this year's event and continue to support us. We hope those that were able to come found it very useful and enjoyable.

We look forward to welcoming more delegates to our 4th ABFA Annual Conference in 2010. The dates and venue will be announced as soon as possible.

The photos of this event will be in our photo gallery soon.