Next Tuesday, 23rd June 2015, AIMA will hold its third annual Next Generation Manager Forum. The holding of this event comes at a time when the hedge fund industry is expanding and evolving rapidly.

Opportunities abound, with new investments or rising allocations from both institutions and family offices worldwide. Further, the capital is not only going to the largest, most established managers; institutions and investors are also being attracted to early stage managers and smaller sized funds too. Arguably, there has never been a more fascinating time to start a hedge fund than now.

London, where the Forum will be held, remains a popular location for new hedge fund launches. Since the beginning of this year, the pace of new fund launches has quickened again, with a number of high quality managers starting up new hedge funds. With greater clarity across the EU as AIFMD legislation starts to bed down, the likelihood is that this should encourage greater regulated fund formation and European institutional investors should take comfort from this.

AIMA recognises the integral role that start-up and emerging managers play in the evolution of the hedge fund industry. AIMA’s Next Generation of Managers Group, for firms managing up to $500m in hedge fund assets, provides a platform to meet and exchange ideas on issues of common concern, including regulation and compliance, marketing and capital raising, fund governance, sound practices and other aspects of managing a hedge fund business. In recognition of the importance we give to this group, it is AIMA’s only working group that permits non-members to join.

Next Tuesday’s conference elaborates on the discussions that this group has held in exploring how to build an alternative fund management business for the 2020s. We are delighted to have such an outstanding line up of speakers who can provide guidance on these issues and more.

In putting this programme together, we are extremely grateful to the chair of the Next Generation of Managers group, Andrew Main, and to our sponsoring partners Bloomberg, for hosting the event. There are still a number of tickets available and if you wish to come along, please contact events@aima.org for further information. We look forward to meeting with you next week.

Thomas Kehoe, Director, Global Head of Research, AIMA