My first T3 conference was around 2005.
At that point in time, I didn't really know Joel. We shook hands and said hello to each other, and that was about it. Then I started being really consistent, going to T3 events around 2007 and 2008. My best memories have always been when Joel and I are sitting, talking, and sometimes drinking his favorite Scotch. So, in honor of that, I'm going to make sure that Joel gets a bottle of Oban for this 20-year celebration.
I've always enjoyed the venues that Joel chooses, and in fact, TradePMR and T3 piggybacked on each other's venues. This year, our conference and Joel’s will both be in Vegas. So, another historic situation with our two conferences colliding. We had some of our best T3 times in the after hours in Denton, Texas, where we were able to converse in a smaller setting with all of our friends in this space – some of us have been around together for 20 and 25 years. Even though T3 has grown to become a large conference, some of my best memories are of the smaller venues and smaller events.
The upcoming T3 is really special to me. We've been working with Joel for months to drive TradePMR advisors to the 2024 T3 conference, as well as any other independent advisor, because I truly believe that advisors who don't take advantage of T3 are just crazy. This is the place where you find out how you can automate and optimize your business, build for best practices, see what people are thinking, what the industry is doing, what vendors are inventing on the side and looking at for their future, as well as what advisors are doing and the tools they're using.
If vendors aren't here, then they're missing a huge opportunity to shine. T3 can be a game-changer. In the independent advisor space, since we are independent, we have to have these technology suites in order to be able to adopt best practices and build things out ourselves because we own and control our own destiny. That's what the independent investment advisor market is all about, the entrepreneurs who go out there and build their businesses and build their practices. Without great technology, they’ll never be able to optimize and build a scalable practice. This is the place to pick your technologies and figure out whether they integrate well. All of those things can be answered right here at T3.