“So, work or pleasure?”
It may be one of the most common questions I get whenever I board an airplane by myself these days. Inevitably, the most common response is:
“Work, but maybe a little of both!”
I think we all resign ourselves a bit to the inevitability of business travel’s rhythms and cadences, but I honestly enjoy traveling to conferences, newsworthy events, and of course, to visit my CFO teammates. And you never know who you might run into on the plane if you’re willing to make some eye contact.
***
“So, conference?”
“Yeah, me too.”
My destination is obviously to go to places where CFOs congregate, and this one happens to be in Las Vegas — the home of the NFL’s Raiders, The Sphere, Cirq du Soleil, and of course a thousand different business conferences. My travel companion next to me on the plane was headed to a fixed-income conference. Oh, an investment portfolio manager? No, a regulator.
I started to get “Big Short” vibes, but he said he was with the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Fortunately, I had my finance Duolingo lexicon handy, so we were able to chat a bit about the state of affairs in fixed income and the regulatory environment. I think we could tell that we both attend a lot of our respective kinds of events and the patterns that reveal themselves.
“Finance bros.”
Huh?
“Finance bros — they’re easy to spot, they all kind of look the same. There are two of them behind us right now on this plane... And when I was in France, visiting Euronext Paris, because that’s what people like you and me tend to do when we’re on vacation, the finance bros were there as well. My wife didn’t believe me until we saw them eventually walk back into the exchange.”
The humorous exchange made me wonder what kind of vibes CFOs tend to give off, and maybe me as well. Sophisticated? A sense of urgency? Collegial? Aloof? Looking for the closest coffee stand?
I have little doubt the finance executives at this conference will know how to find each other to congregate, encourage, support, and help navigate 2024’s treacherous undercurrents. I’ll be on the hunt, but the fun thing about it is, sometimes they find us at CFO first.