Tomatoes & Investments

Group Publisher

Tomatoes & Investments. No, I am not announcing a new publication, but the return of the whole Pensions & Investments team after Labor Day weekend marks an important annual “tomato event”. Every September, we get together and share the bounty from my tomato garden and energize our team to prepare for a strong finish to the year. Before beginning our P&I lunchtime feast this year, I spent some time discussing the unique attributes of a special tomato that I grow in my garden called Pomodorino Piennolo del Vesuvio.

If you have ever visited the Amalfi Coast (where my family is luckily located!) you might have seen deep red bunches of small grape tomatoes hanging in the markets of Positano, Amalfi, Ravello and in the market areas of Naples. Those are the Pomodorino Piennolo del Vesuvio. I also grow San Marzano and Sorrento tomatoes, which are germinated from seeds that I have purchased while vacationing with our family in Italy. I enjoy the satisfaction that comes with planting seeds and seeing something grow. There’s an investment analogy here too, and our team is culturally aligned with helping our clients’ grow their business as well. It’s safe to say that growth is an important goal for us at P&I.

The return after Labor Day also marks the beginning of an intense schedule for P&I. We published our annual look at the worlds’ largest pension funds on Sept. 2, the P&I/Thinking Ahead Institute World 300, and we will publish our annual report on hedge funds and funds of funds on Sept. 16. Our editors and reporters are also working on P&I’s Best Places to Work in Money Management feature, which will be published on Dec. 9. Be sure to check out these important reports for insights and news on these important topics.

Our conference and marketing teams are equally busy with the production of our Emerging Markets Conference in Chicago and New York, scheduled for Sept. 24 and 26, respectively, and our Retirement Income Breakfast Briefings in Atlanta on Oct. 3 and in New York on Oct. 19. We end October with P&I’s World Pension Summit in the Hague from October 22 to 24. November and December get busier still with our OCIO, West Coast DC Conference, Japanese Global Pension Symposium, Multi-Asset Investing, and the Core Menu Conundrum conference finishing off the year. A complete list of these conferences with details on how to participate can be found here.

We have some exciting new metrics to share with you that should make you feel good about partnering with our team at Pensions & Investments:

We have grown the qualified asset owner attendance at P&I Conferences this year by 18%! For you and your marketing efforts, this means we offer even great value in accessing hard to reach executives at pension funds, retirement plans, endowments, foundations and other large pools of institutional assets.
The P&I digital audience is also growing. Online engagement with our content has increased by 20% in the first seven months of the year. News has been and remains our core focus, but we have added many new digital features and special reports that have helped us nurture and grow our digital audience
P&I’s Content Solutions Group supports the fastest growing marketing strategies of the asset management business. Our latest study shows that 72% of firms now have a documented content marketing strategy. This is a 17% increase from our 2017 survey.

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