This year's Annual Conference, generously sponsored by MCR, was held in Barcelona on Wednesday 26th to Thursday 27th of November 2008.

The beautiful city of Barcelona provided the backdrop for this year's rather muted ABFA Annual Conference. As delegates arrived for the Welcome Reception on the evening of Wednesday 26th November, talk was of how many delegates might fail to make it, as tough times at home took their toll. The Welcome Reception, held at the hotel and generously sponsored by Hammonds, was nonetheless a great way to start the event, as people found old friends and discussed the challenges that many were facing at home.

The morning of the conference got off to a sobering start with Tim Corbett, ABFA Chairman, outlining the changes which had taken place in the financial markets since this time last year. Then it was time to introduce the BBC's Jon Sopel, who generously hosted the conference's proceedings throughout the day. First up was Mark Cleaver of Bibby Financial Services, who had the unenviable job of taking about staying focussed and the importance of company strategy, now more than ever.

Then it was Nic Perkin's turn to capivate the audience with his 'live' demonstration of The Receivables Exchange latest product. This presentation was opened up to the audience for questions and as a result the conference ran half and hour late for the rest of the morning. As far as we are concerned, an interesting and thought provoking presentation is the best reason to be running over time! After coffee two Stephens from the USA spoke to the audience on the changing environment, or Layer Cake, of Mezzanine finance in the United States at the moment, before Karren Brady spoke to the mainly male audience on what it was like to be a successful woman who made it in a man's world. Karren was excellent, completely inspiring and a great way to end the morning's session.

After lunch the programme resumed with Kjell Nordstrom, a renowned Economist, holding an hour long session on the future and how fundamental shifts in the way we live will be the driving influences behind the changing economy in the years ahead. This session was hughly thought provoking as Kjell incouraged business leaders to think 'outside the box' with regards to opportunities and threats. Then Kirsty McGregor from the Corporate Finance Network presented some recent research findings from surveying the SME community, which was highly topically in the present climate. The the final session of the afternoon was left to Justin Hughes from Mission Excellence, who spoke about high performance teams and generating excellent results time and time again in high pressure environments. Then it was time for Tim to close the conference for the day and to invite everyone back for dinner in the evening.

The evening of 27th 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 Siren, a very talented female band who entertained the audience during dinner. But undoubtedly the highlight of the evening for many will have been listening to Jon Sopel. Jon's after-dinner speech was perfectly judged, being both humourous, with past tales of his journalist experiences reporting from the front line, to the more serious and tackling the latest economic situation we find ourselves in. Very insightful 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 to our Platinum Sponsors - MCR, for helping 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 useful.

We look forward to welcoming more delegates to our 3rd ABFA Annual Conference in 2009. The dates and venue will be announced as soon as possible.

To view more photos of this event, please visit our photo gallery