One of the many benefits offered by the ACT Annual Conference (ACTAC) is the opportunity it affords for reflection. Many of us spend too much time with our heads down concentrating on the day job unable to pause for thought. Yet it is essential to try and put the work we do in the context of our organisation, the state of the wider economy and other world events. ACTAC has traditionally given treasurers and other members of the finance team a place to look back at the most significant events of the past year and try to see what may lie ahead in the coming 12 months. This conference may not be meeting in quite the febrile state as the gathering of 2008, six months after the collapse of the Lehman investment bank, when the financial world was still a shaky and uncertain place and the conference reflected that mood of disbelief and worried anticipation. We have moved beyond that, but 2011 still asks some tough questions. This year ACTAC has as its backdrop an economy which appears to have a certain familiarity about it: inflation and unemployment too high for comfort and growth stubbornly anaemic. Even the call to export sounds like a blast from the past. Better news cannot come soon enough, as the mid-April retail figures show. The biggest fall in retail sales since records began in the mid-1990s underline just how tough it is out there, and few sectors can claim to be untouched. The shocks precipitated by the financial and banking crisis of 2007 and 2008 are still working their way out. While financing may be available – especially to the larger entities – it is clear that funding the corporate of the future is a whole new ball game. Similarly the risk management strategy needs a careful examination to make sure it can deal with increased complexity and continuing uncertainty. And while the treasurer may be called on to help in many ways across the business, the fundamentals have not been forgotten. The cliché that cash is king does not do justice to the idea that liquidity is the alpha and omega of corporate life. Whatever the conditions and challenges that treasurers face, the conference is shot through with a sense of professionalism and quiet optimism. The treasurer and the treasury profession have had a good credit crisis – few would argue any differently. The challenge now is to remain indispensable to corporate life. The content of the conference reflects the ever widening contribution that professionally qualified treasury professionals can make. With much to discuss and with much to challenge us, ACTAC in Liverpool comes at an opportune time to take a few moments to step back and see the bigger picture. PETER WILLIAMS EDITOR
